Domestication of Turkey

[centrarchid]

Something of interest to me is the business of how and when a given species is dometicated. I am doing same now and interested how ancients did it with resources they had.

Below is link to findings indicating process with turkeys much further back in time than originally thought.




http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/48593086/ns/technology_and_science-science/

 

[ivan3]

Thanks for posting. Domestication is a rapid process. With turks, simply getting a Wild han's eggs to hatch in the presence of humans that are willing to hand feed them and otherwise care for them does the job. These turks, regardless of variety, are Domestic.

Some more on the spread from the South: http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0042630

An excellent dissertation on domestication in the Southwest of North America: Investigating Turkey (Meleagris Gallopavo) Domestication in the Southwest Through Ancient DNA Analysis, Camilla Speller, Simon Fraser University, 2009:

summit.sfu.ca/system/files/iritems1/10463/ETD4815.pdf (if link doesn't work directly - copy paste the info above into address bar, in google, and it will supply link from which one can download - depends on the browser one is using as to whether this is a problem).

Even more interesting is the speed, through a few generations, with which `domestication' (altering of stress hormones, primarily) can manifest itself in physical changes. In the following, a Russian researcher who read a little too much Darwin and not enough Lysenko, in the Soviet Union, found himself in Siberia, looking to increase reproduction of Silver Fox, in captivity. Didn't get any more wraps/coats out of the work. Instead, tame, piebald marked foxes with curled tails.

http://www.hum.utah.edu/~bbenham/2510 Spring 09/Behavior Genetics/Farm-Fox Experiment.pdf