Genetic search for an equine Eve fails
By Susan Milius
A new analysis of horses’ genes suggests a different history from that of other domesticated animals.
Dogs, goats, sheep, and cattle each fall into several relatively tidy lineages, explains Carles Vila of Uppsala University in Sweden. Such simple family trees reflect a history of only a few, independent efforts at taming and breeding.
When the researchers checked horse DNA, however, they found unexpected diversity. This probably bespeaks many domestication successes, the researchers say in the Jan. 19 Science.