Friday, September 5, 2008

Nice Guys Finish First Sometimes

From The Horse, the Wheel, and Language

The female bloodline of modern domesticated horses shows extreme diversity... at least seventy-seven ancestral mares are required to account for the genetic variety in modern population.  Meanwhile, the male aspect of modern horse DNA shows remarkable homogeneity.  It is possible that just a single wild stallion was domesticated.

One male horse.  Many female horses.  Think about it.

Stallions are headstrong and violent... A relatively docile and controllable mare could be found at the bottom of the pecking order in many wild horse bands, but a relatively docile and controllable stallion was an unusual individual--and one that had little hope of reproducing in the wild... From the horse's perspective, humans were the only way he could get a girl.

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