Earliest domesticated horses dated 5,500 years ago

AP via Yahoo! ^ | Thursday, March 5, 2009 | Randolph E. Schmid

[SunkenCiv]

To Hell with AP.

[muawiyah]

Tetse Fly

[muawiyah]

Guinea Fowl ~

[muawiyah]

American Indians never domesticated the North American bison, which is otherwise indistinguishable from the European or Asian cattle.

One reason advanced for this is that brucellosis is endemic among bison. People who attempted to live close to bison, or use them for anything but meat, ended up failing to reproduce at a sufficient rate to avoid dying out.

[Republican Party Reptile]

Not that simple, Zebra may be part of the equine family, but the temperament of Zebra just weren't suited for domesticating (many a European early colonizer in Africa tried, but failed). Same goes for elephant - African elephants are larger, meaner, and much more ill tempered than their Asian cousins and just didn't lend itself to domestication (which is why you only see Asian elephants in circus shows, not African ones).

[Republican Party Reptile]

Also, it's not just a matter of “having thousands of years to try”, some animals are just never going to be domesticated.

After all, sub-Sahara Africa did domesticate cattle, so it's not as if they were alien to the concept of selective breeding for domestication.

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

American Indians never domesticated the North American bison

Well the Europeans never domesticated the European Bison either.

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

why you only see Asian elephants in circus shows, not African ones

Actually a couple of decades afo, the last time I went to the Ringling Brothers, they had a couple of African Elephants among their herd of Asian Elephants. They did not let the customers near them, of course.

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

Botai horses were bridled, perhaps ridden.

Since the article is behind a subscriber firewall I don't know how large these horses were, but the earliest horses known in civilized countries were too small to be ridden by an adult, which is why chariots came earlier in warfare than cavalry.

[muawiyah]

Sure they did ~ by crossbreeding it with domesticated cattle. The resulting beast is just as rangy, has the big hair, but is smaller and isn't angry all the time.

All these cattle are the same species.

[ferri]

Guinea Fowl ~

wicked, evil creatures. LOL

[SunkenCiv]

domestication of horse site:freerepublic.com

Google

[SunkenCiv]

Chinese Archaeologists Probe Origin Of Domestic Horses Through DNA
Xinhuanet - China View | 4-1-2006 | Mo Hong’e
Posted on 04/01/2006 2:55:30 PM PST by blam
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1607597/posts

[SunkenCiv]