A Gene Tied To Facial Development Hints Humans Domesticated Themselves

Science News Magazine ^ | 1-27-2020 | Tina Hesman Saey

[blam]

Called BAZ1B, it may also help explain why domesticated animals look cuter than their wild kin

Domestic animals’ cuteness and humans’ relatively flat faces may be the work of a gene that controls some important developmental cells, a study of lab-grown human cells suggests.

Some scientists are touting the finding as the first real genetic evidence for two theories about domestication. One of those ideas is that humans domesticated themselves over many generations, by weeding out hotheads in favor of the friendly and cooperative (SN: 7/6/17). As people supposedly selected among themselves for tameness traits, other genetic changes occurred that resulted in humans, like other domesticated animals, having a different appearance than their predecessors. Human faces are smaller, flatter and have less prominent brow ridges than Neandertal faces did, for instance.

Domesticated animals look different from their wild counterparts as well. Shorter snouts, curly tails, floppy ears and spotted coats are all traits that tend to pop up in domesticated animals. But until recently, no one had an explanation for this “domestication syndrome.”

Then in 2014, three scientists proposed that as people selected animals for tameness, they also happened to select for genetic changes that slightly hamper movement of some developmentally important cells (SN: 7/14/14). These neural crest cells are present early in embryonic development and migrate to different parts of the embryo where they give rise to many tissues, including bones and cartilage in the face, smooth muscles, adrenal glands, pigment cells and parts of the nervous system. The researchers’ idea was that mild genetic changes might produce neural crest cells that don’t move as well, leading to domestic animals’ cuddlier look.

Both of those big domestication ideas have been just that, with not much hard evidence for or against either.

(snip)

[RoosterRedux]

He’s not feral. Feral animals are not pussies.

[Does so]

Doesn’t explain “Florida Man”.

[PIF]

How does anyone know that we “self-domesticated”? How do we know that we were not domesticated by another race of the human stock like the Neanderthals, the Denisovans?

[Louis Foxwell]

The picture of Schiff disproves the entire theory. As a domesticated animal Schiff is “cute.” He has a round face, an easy smile, pudgy eyes, a tiny nose, receding chin, and is nearly bald. As a pet he is adorable. His personality, on the other hand, is obsequious. He is not to be trusted. He has no loyalty beyond himself. He is utterly disreputable. In the case of Schiff and those others like him, there is another element not measured by genetics. He is possessed by demons.

[Louis Foxwell]

Not quite with the Russian foxes. They were rigidly selected for friendly, non aggressive behavior. The sweet ones were bred with other sweet ones generation after generation until only sweet ones were born.

[neverevergiveup]

"But Zanella and his colleagues’ conclusion is a giant leap from their research on cells growing in laboratory dishes, says Kenneth Kosik, a neuroscientist at the University of California, Santa Barbara. “It’s a very seductive paper,” full of interesting ideas and reams of data, he says. But tying human evolution, domestication and development of facial features together based on the activity of one gene is an overinterpretation, Kosik says. “Those kinds of jumps just don’t belong in a scientific paper.”"

Couldn't agree more, but this is the kind of sensationalism journal editors push for these days.

[dp0622]

lol

by weeding out hotheads in favor of the friendly and cooperative ..

I must have slipped under the radar.

And you’d think there’d be less than 1,000 wars in the past 100 years if this was so.

And it would seem quite hard to get millions to fight against each other.

[SoCal Pubbie]

It’s been theorized that cats domesticated themselves. Household felines are descended from African wildcats who may have recognized a good thing when they saw human settlements are found mice in their granaries.

[Balding_Eagle]

Schiff is a throwback.

[Buttons12]

It only has a shelf life of about 12 years, though. Then your adolescents take back their feral heritage.

[Tench_Coxe]

[Tench_Coxe]

[TangoLimaSierra]

So, he’s like a cat?

[BubbaBasher]

Then why do women go for the bad boys?

[Mr. Blond]

You can’t breed for traits that don’t exist. That lowered aggression would begin with the generation with lowered cortisol, then you can selectively breed from there to exaggerate the traits.

[Bob Ireland]

***people supposedly selected among themselves for tameness traits ... Human faces are smaller, flatter and have less prominent brow ridges than Neandertal faces did***

I suspect the Neanderthals wouldn't have viewed this theory with quite the same values as Tina Hesman Saey... Undoubtedly Tina is very tame and attractive (flat faced).

[Unam Sanctam]

With Democratic criminal non-enforcement policy, we’re going backwards...