mhoramdm{at}yahoo.com (SpiralOut) wrote in news:c2u6ku$20sj$1
{at}darwin.ediacara.org:

> Hi, first of all, I hope this is in the right group, and hasn't been
> asked repeatedly in the past. A quick search didn't give me what I was
> looking for.
> 
> This is a difficult subject to google, so I just need some direction,
> any help would be appreciated, I don't mind doing the research for
> myself if I can get on the right track.
> 
> I would like to find out (a) a rough estimate on the time of
> divergence from the respective ancestors of: sheep, chicken, and
> cattle. And, most importantly (b) some idea of the nature and
> lifestyle of these species before they were widely domesticated by
> humans. Where they lived, what they fed on, what their predators were,
> how they survived extinction..
> 
> See, my thinking is this, the modern sheep, chicken, and cattle seem
> to be contradictory examples to natural selection. They have no
> defenses; they can't run fast, they can't fight predators, they are
> not suited for a diverse climate or terrain; I cannot imagine them
> living in the wild. Without humans they would seem to be nothing more
> than snack food for predators until they were quickly killed off. Am I
> totally off base here?

Jim Menegay has already given the reference to _Guns, Germs, and Steel_ 
which should give you good starting points for your search. I just wanted 
to make a few comments about the above living in the wild.

Longhorn cattle - the cattle that you see in all the westerns - were the 
choice of cattlemen in the old west precisely for their ability to run 
fast, fight predators, and survive in diverse climate and terrain, 
especially on the long drives necessary to get them to market. They in 
fact have a rather nasty temperament and are not the best tasting beef, 
and no sane rancher would put up with them other than for their survival 
value.  Once the west was tamed, the predators were eliminated, and 
transportation became widely available,  the longhorn was superseded by 
more domestic varieties. 

Until recently, roosters were famed for their fighting ability. While 
this was directed largely for sport, "gamecocks" are hardly defenseless. 
"Free range" chickens still live partly in the wild, albeit with help 
from humans. 

There are still wild kin of sheep ancestors that survive quite nicely in 
the American Rocky Mountains.

Yours,

Bill Morse
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