What links Paris Hilton and the ancient Mesopotamians?

Jan 16 2009 by Tony Henderson, The Journal

ANIMALS have been saddled with coats of many colours by the human thirst for novelty, according to a North expert.

Dr Greger Larson, of Durham University’s Department of Archaeology. studied wild and domestic pigs down the ages.

And he claimed his findings showed ancient Mesopotamians and Paris Hilton had a lot in common.

Dr Larson revealed that over thousands of years, people have used selective breeding to create animal coats sporting a wide variety of colours, spots and bands.

This is in direct contrast to nature, where to be different is dangerous.

In the wild, nature opts for uniformity among members of the same species.

Dr Larson said: “If an animal is different, it will be easily seen by predators. And if a predator is different, it will be seen by its prey.

“A black polar bear would stand out against a white backdrop and be easily seen by seals.”

But his genetics study has highlighted how, from the earliest domestication of animals 10,000 years ago, people were taken by any colour or pattern variety and encouraged it through breeding.

He said the love of new things had produced everything from black and gold labrador dogs to white grapes.

Dr Larson said: “Nature abhors novelty, but humans like it. When early farmers came across a different colour in an animal, it would have been a ‘wow’ reaction.

“Grapes naturally come in varieties of red but the first people to find a white grape would have said, ‘That’s cool’.”

“People replaced nature in terms of selective breeding and protected their different animals from the predators which would have eaten them.

“The Mesopotamians had different coloured farm animals 5,000 years ago, and in that regard they were no different to Paris Hilton, who loves pink chihuahuas.

“This study demonstrates that the human penchant for novelty stretches back thousands of years.

“There is a very long history of selection for crazy coat colours in animals and the evidence suggests that the love of novelty played a large role.”

Dr Larson said other factors behind selective breeding could include the fact that it was easier to keep track of livestock that were not naturally camouflaged and that differently- coloured animals represented improved livestock characteristics compared with their wild ancestors.

Dr Larson’s study was conducted in co-operation with Uppsala University in Sweden.

:: For more stories from Tony, go to www.journallive.co.uk/tonyhenderson

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