Origin of agriculture and domestication of plants and animals linked to early Holocene climate amelioration

Abstract

Domestication of plants and animals was necessary for the evolution of agriculture, spatial expansion and population increase of humans during the Holocene, which facilitated the evolution of technically innov ative societies. The agricultural practices enabled pe ople to establish permanent settlements and expand urbanbased societies. Domestication of plants and animals transformed the profession of the early humans from hunting and gathering to selective hunting, herding and settled agriculture. The earliest archaeological evidences, found throughout the tropical and subtropical areas of southwestern and southern Asia, northern and central Africa and Central America, suggest rapid and large-scale domestication of plants and animals ca. 10,000–7000 cal years BP. This interval corresponds to an intense humid phase and equable climates, as observed in numerous paleo records across the regions. I suggest that domestication of plants and animals and subsequent beginning of agr iculture were linked to cli mate amelioration in the early Holocene. CLIMATE has played a critical role in the evolution of fauna and flora. Proxy data suggest occurrence of wid espread repeated, abrupt climate changes throughout the geological record 1 . Persistent abrupt changes in climate may alter ecological landscape, le ading to faunal adaptation. Human adaptation and migration in response to s evere climate changes are known from the paleo records 2 . R ecent archaeological findings from Yana River, Siberia, ind icate that humans adapted to the harsh, frigid climate of the Arctic during the late Pleistocene about 27,000 year ago 3