Domestic pigs in the New Forest, England
9 Deborah Lee Rossiter/Shutterstock
Ancient DNA unearthed from rock shelters across Europe suggests that local nomadic peoples raised goats and sheep more than 5,000 years ago, but switched to primarily raising pigs 2,000 years later, around the time that the surrounding forest biodiversity significantly declined.
Although more research is needed, the discovery suggests that keeping pigs, which burrow underground and are much less picky eaters than goats or sheep, may have played a role in the formation of modern forests. The discovery was made possible by analysing DNA from ancient sediments…
