"just selectively chosen" is the basis for domestication.
[/QUOTE]
Quote:
|
The act of harvesting the wild grains changed them genetically. For example, a small percentage of wild grass plants has seed that clings to the stalk even when ripe, rather than separating easily. Humans collecting wheat or barley seed would succeed in gathering a disproportionate amount of the mutant seeds-that-cling in each harvest. .
|
Its our "selecting" and successfully bringing to harvest which developed domestic forms of wheat. Certain plants simply made it through the distribution process better.
Clams which ship better or survive under artificial conditions find themselves rewarded with propagation.
:
Quote:
|
The same kinds of genetic transformations occured in the animals domesticated by early farmers and pastoralists. The process of selective breeding of animals was at first unintentional and probably unobserved. For example, large, aggressive, and big-horned bulls were probably too dangerous to keep around and so did not survive to reproduce these characteristics. Thus, over time, early farmers unwittingly altered the genetic make-up of the life forms they most relied on.
|
We gathered up all the wild cows (wild Aurock bull) and simply selected to breed those with which we found most pleasing .(smaller and less aggressive)
It would be no different if we collected all the wild clams and then only bred the brightly colored ones.
Clam farmers and coral cultivators select which products to reproduce.There in gathering a disproportionate amount of the mutant colorful individuals. But even still
only those selected organisms which grow and reach market are re chosen for propagation.
Organisms which dont survive the cultivation process dont make it to market, even in spite of the farmers wishes.
The farmer can choose which morphs to propagate,
but ultimately its the animal itself which must adapt to its new domestic conditions.
Wild animals have only proven themselves living out in the pristine wild reef.
Cultivated clams and corals which cant survive the conditions at the farm dont reach the consumer.
Thats the difference . And a big one.