Size Reduction in Early European Domestic Cattle Relates to Intensification of Neolithic Herding Strategies

Our analysis of over 28,000 osteometric measurements from fossil remains dating between c. 5600 and 1500 BCE reveals a substantial reduction in body mass of 33% in Neolithic central European domestic cattle. We investigate various plausible explanations for this phenotypic adaptation, dismissing cli...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Manning, Katie, Timpson, Adrian, Shennan, Stephen, Crema, Enrico
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2015
Materias:
Research Article
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4668083/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26630287
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0141873
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author Manning, Katie
Timpson, Adrian
Shennan, Stephen
Crema, Enrico
author_facet Manning, Katie
Timpson, Adrian
Shennan, Stephen
Crema, Enrico
author_sort Manning, Katie
collection PubMed
description Our analysis of over 28,000 osteometric measurements from fossil remains dating between c. 5600 and 1500 BCE reveals a substantial reduction in body mass of 33% in Neolithic central European domestic cattle. We investigate various plausible explanations for this phenotypic adaptation, dismissing climatic change as a causal factor, and further rejecting the hypothesis that it was caused by an increase in the proportion of smaller adult females in the population. Instead we find some support for the hypothesis that the size decrease was driven by a demographic shift towards smaller newborns from sub-adult breeding as a result of intensifying meat production strategies during the Neolithic.
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spelling pubmed-46680832015-12-10 Size Reduction in Early European Domestic Cattle Relates to Intensification of Neolithic Herding Strategies Manning, Katie Timpson, Adrian Shennan, Stephen Crema, Enrico PLoS One Research Article Our analysis of over 28,000 osteometric measurements from fossil remains dating between c. 5600 and 1500 BCE reveals a substantial reduction in body mass of 33% in Neolithic central European domestic cattle. We investigate various plausible explanations for this phenotypic adaptation, dismissing climatic change as a causal factor, and further rejecting the hypothesis that it was caused by an increase in the proportion of smaller adult females in the population. Instead we find some support for the hypothesis that the size decrease was driven by a demographic shift towards smaller newborns from sub-adult breeding as a result of intensifying meat production strategies during the Neolithic. Public Library of Science 2015-12-02 /pmc/articles/PMC4668083/ /pubmed/26630287 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0141873 Text en © 2015 Manning et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Manning, Katie
Timpson, Adrian
Shennan, Stephen
Crema, Enrico
Size Reduction in Early European Domestic Cattle Relates to Intensification of Neolithic Herding Strategies
title Size Reduction in Early European Domestic Cattle Relates to Intensification of Neolithic Herding Strategies
title_full Size Reduction in Early European Domestic Cattle Relates to Intensification of Neolithic Herding Strategies
title_fullStr Size Reduction in Early European Domestic Cattle Relates to Intensification of Neolithic Herding Strategies
title_full_unstemmed Size Reduction in Early European Domestic Cattle Relates to Intensification of Neolithic Herding Strategies
title_short Size Reduction in Early European Domestic Cattle Relates to Intensification of Neolithic Herding Strategies
title_sort size reduction in early european domestic cattle relates to intensification of neolithic herding strategies
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4668083/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26630287
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0141873
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