Humans have caused wild animals to shrink and domestic animals to grow, according to a new study out of the University of Montpellier in southern France. Researchers studied tens of thousands of animal bones from Mediterranean France covering the last 8,000 years to see how the size of both types of animals has changed over time.
    • whyNotSquirrel@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      0·
      1 month ago

      It’s a sheep

      A Solognote ewe: in the northwestern Mediterranean, sheep—like other domestic mammals—were shaped by both human and environmental pressures. Credit: Yann Le Poul

            • teft@piefed.socialEnglish
              0·
              1 month ago

              The photo was done by Yann Le Poul who seems to be a Frenchman who photographs animals. You can see the photo credited to him by clicking on the photo and then a quick web search will bring up pages where he has won some awards for his animal photography.

            • AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.worldEnglish
              0·
              28 days ago

              Yeah, it looks totally unexceptional to me.

              If you haven’t seen enough sheep or goats to tell the two apart, maybe it’s your general unfamiliarity that’s tripping your uncanny detector?

  • AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    1 month ago

    The interesting part (which isn’t in the title or summary) is that the correlation reversed between the Roman and medieval eras—before 1,000 years ago, the wild and domestic populations were evolving in the same direction.