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Have goat, will travel

Nature (2001)Cite this article

The hardy goat has accompanied humans wherever they have wandered.

A goat seems to have been the must-have accessory for any prehistoric farmer with wanderlust. Patterns of genetic variation in modern goats reveal that, although they were domesticated in several places, the descendents of these pioneers have since intermingled, interbred and spread far and wide, to a far greater extent than other livestock species1.

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References

  1. Luikart,G. et al. Multiple maternal origins and weak phylogeographic structure in domestic goats. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 98, 5927-5932 (2001).

  2. Troy,C. S. et al. Genetic evidence for Near-Eastern origins of European cattle. Nature 410, 1088-1091 (2001).

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  1. John Whitfield
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Whitfield, J. Have goat, will travel. Nature (2001). https://doi.org/10.1038/news010510-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/news010510-4

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