A unique confluence of archeology, molecular genetics and serendipity guided a collaboration of Mexican and Penn State researchers to a deeper understanding of how modern corn was domesticated from ...

Human civilisation has been shaped by the emergence of domesticated crop plants and livestock from their wild relatives. This long-term process involved ...

Nearly 40,000 years ago, humanity had its best idea to date: transform the age's apex predator into a sociable and loyal ally. Though early humans largely muddled through the first few thousand years ...

Whether it’s your grandpa’s nose, your mother’s eyes, or the chin the entire family share, humans depend on facial features to tell one another apart, to read emotions and intent, and to communicate ...

Cats, dogs and farm animals are what come to mind when we think of domesticated animals. For ages, domestication has been portrayed as a uniquely human accomplishment, where species become domestic ...

Though dogs are so close genetically to wolves that many taxonomists consider them to be a subspecies, most people wouldn’t let a wolf lick their hand as readily as a Shih Tzu. When animals are ...

In Tom Edison’s Shaggy Dog, a short story by Kurt Vonnegut, Thomas Edison discovers that dogs are intellectually superior beings. They’re so smart, in fact, that the canines found the easiest possible ...

A surprising discovery has rewritten how cats become house pets, while unexpected and rapid evolution is making red foxes more like dogs. In short: an animal’s path to domestication is very ...

A new study used behavioral data from more than 76,000 dogs, to test the hypothesis that key behaviors in the domestication syndrome are correlated. Scientists since Darwin have been intrigued by the ...