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Domesticated swine and Western Civilization go back a long way together. The domestic pig was being raised in Europe by about 1500 BC. Rome improved pig breeding and spread them throughout their empire. The early Christians increasingly abandoned the Jewish ban on the eating of pork by about 50 AD and it’s been the celebrated ‘other white meat’ ever since. Pigs and the discovery of the New World went hand in hand. Christopher Columbus took eight pigs on his voyage to Cuba in 1493 at Queen Isabella’s insistence. Hernando de Soto brought America’s first thirteen pigs to Tampa Bay, Fla.,...

Indigenous dogs roamed Jamestown in the early 17th century, and out of desperation during harsh winter months, some colonists ate them, researchers have proven.A team of archaeologists at the University of Iowa was able to extract DNA from remains found at Jamestown and confirm that they belonged to ancient dogs that were likely wolf or coyote-sized.It's the first time proof has ever been found that indigenous dogs were at Jamestown in the 17th century. The bones are part of an artifact collection owned by Jamestown Rediscovery, part of the historic preservation group called Preservation Virginia."They have lineages reaching back to...

Greger Larson,1* Keith Dobney,2 Umberto Albarella,3 Meiying Fang,4 Elizabeth Matisoo-Smith,5 Judith Robins,5 Stewart Lowden,6 Heather Finlayson,7 Tina Brand,8 Eske Willerslev,1 Peter Rowley-Conwy,2 Leif Andersson,4 Alan Cooper1* Abstract Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequences from 686 wild and domestic pig specimens place the origin of wild boar in island Southeast Asia (ISEA), where they dispersed across Eurasia. Previous morphological and genetic evidence suggested pig domestication took place in a limited number of locations (principally the Near East and Far East). In contrast, new genetic data reveal multiple centers of domestication across Eurasia and that European, rather than Near Eastern, wild boar are the...

Which came first, the pigs or the pioneers? In Barbados, that has been a historical mystery ever since the first English colonists arrived on the island in 1627 to encounter what they thought was a herd of wild European pigs. A recent discovery by an SFU archaeologist is shedding new light on the matter. Christina Giovas uncovered the jaw bone of a peccary, a South American mammal that resembles a wild pig, while researching a larger project on prehistoric animal introductions in the Caribbean... Giovas and collaborators George Kamenov and John Krigbaum of the University of Florida radiocarbon-dated the bone...

A new species of pig-like mammal called a peccary has been discovered in the southeastern Amazon region of Brazil, a scientist announced today. It is the largest peccary in the world, about the size of a large dog. The newly named beast (Pecari maximus) was found in the basin of the Rio Aripuanã and confirmed to be a distinct species via a genetic analysis conducted by the Leiden Centre for Environmental Sciences in the Netherlands. Though new to science, locals already knew about the creature. Tupi Indians called it Caitetu Munde, which means "great peccary which lives in pairs." Dutch...