Crying Wolf (Life Sciences)

[Chad]

http://www.britishspottedponysociety.co.uk/breed-history/4582980329

BRITISH SPOTTED PONY



There used to be a horse-sized variant... But they are now all registered as Appaloosas, even though they are indigenous to Britain.

They have all the characteristics that lady was looking for in the Kyrgyz horses... even the white ring around the eye and striped hooves.

[Boreades]

This: http://www.appaloosa.org.uk/

Says:
The earliest recorded evidence of spotted horses can be found in cave paintings at Lascaux and Peche-Merle in France. These date back to Prehistoric times of approximately 18,000 BC. For all we know these remarkable pictures may depict the remotest of ancestors of the present day Appaloosa breed.

But then drifts back to the orthodoxy:
It is almost certain that the American-based Appaloosas originated from Spain through the Spanish Conquistadators who took vividly marked horses with them to America.

And then (as we know with the benefit of that documentary) it lurches towards the stupid.
There is no evidence to suggest that spotting patterns have arisen independently anywhere else in the world, hence it is a viable assumption that the cave dwellers in France were painting something new.

[Hatty]

The lady from New Zealand called them apples. Dapples or dappled greys are the quintessential English ponies, at least in story books.

[Ishmael]

Obviously, the Mongols got their horses from Britain.

[Chad]

Something that has intrigued me for a while (and the appaloosa horse brought it back to mind) is the fact that every single human has a visible unpigmented sclera, whereas every single non-human ape (except those in the Planet of The Apes franchise) has a dark pigmented sclera.

[Chad]

Similarly, all wolves have a pigmented sclera:



Whereas many dogs have white sclera:



See a pattern forming?

[Mick Harper]

If you consult the relevant pages of The Megalithic Empire you will find that "whiteness" is one of the Ten Characteristics of Domestication. Apart from making animals stand out in the landscape (presumably so humans can see them now that predators are not so much a problem) no explanation for this was forthcoming. Shame on the authors!

I suppose it is just possible that white sclera (first time I've heard this term, by the way) would make dogs shine out in the dark ... but why then humans? Unless -- as has been hinted at occasionally in these portals -- that humans were originally domesticated animals.

[Chad]

Yes, it's a characteristic that's virtually absent in wild mammals... but relatively common in their domestic counterparts.

We've already touched on horses and dogs, but you can also find it in cows, pigs and even Asiatic elephants.

[Hatty]

Is that dog a pointer? It may be relevant, the white sclera seems to show the direction the eye is looking.

[Ishmael]

Is it yet time for us to start asking, "Who domesticated us?"

[Chad]

[Chad]

[Mick Harper]

Presumably only white people are domesticated.

[Chad]

Sclera says no.

The fact that every single human has white sclerae and every single nonhuman ape doesn't, suggests this is a founder trait.

I suspect that all humans are domesticates and the initial population was white (retention of juvenile characteristic... as in pink skinned baby chimps).



Darker skin was a subsequent environmental adaptation

[Chad]

Apparently we're not alone in having noticed common characteristics among different domesticated species: