Human impact on the evolution of domestic and wild animal body size has intensified in the last millennium Open Breadcrumb configuration options

Since the Middle Ages, the size of wild and domestic animals has largely been shaped by human selection: domestic animals are increasingly larger; wild animals increasingly smaller. During the 7,000 years preceding this period, however, wild and domestic species evolved in a synchronous and similar manner, suggesting that environmental and climatic changes played a greater role in shaping animal morphology. These findings, unprecedented on such a time scale, are revealed by CNRS scientists¹  in a study published in PNAS this week.

The growing size of domestic animals such as sheep, goats, pigs, cattle, chicken and rabbits over the past 1,000 years is attributed to an unprecedented human impact on environments, active efforts to increase productivity and the development of selective breeding. The reduction in size of wild species such as deer, hare and foxes, on the other hand, is the result of intensified hunting and the fragmentation and shrinking of natural habitats.

This study, the first on such a scale, is the result of close, interdisciplinary cooperation between bioarchaeologists, climate modellers and stakeholders in preventive and research archaeology² . Over 80,000 bone measurements from 311 archaeological sites in southern France were needed to obtain the results. A comparison with paleoenvironmental, paleoclimatic and archaeological data collected in the last 30 years in the region reveals the close and evolving relationships between human societies and their environment and illustrates the growing impact of human activities on animal populations.

These findings offer the research team a valuable framework in which to explore the adaptation of animal species to past and present anthropic pressures.

1. Scientists working at the Institut des sciences de l’Évolution de Montpellier (CNRS/IRD/Université de Montpellier). Scientists from Archéologie des sociétés méditerranéennes(CNRS/French Ministry of Culture/University of Montpellier Paul Valéry) also contributed to the study.
2. Preventive archaeology is the detection and scientific study of remains on land or under water that are likely to be destroyed by construction work related to land development. Research archaeology addresses a specific scientific question concerning existing sites that are not endangered by land development projects.