Coat color variation at the beginning of horse domestication

Abstract

The transformation of wild animals into domestic ones available for human nutrition was a key prerequisite for modern human societies. However, no other domestic species has had such a substantial impact on the warfare, transportation, and communication capabilities of human societies as the horse. Here, we show that the analysis of ancient DNA targeting nuclear genes responsible for coat coloration allows us to shed light on the timing and place of horse domestication. We conclude that it is unlikely that horse domestication substantially predates the occurrence of coat color variation, which was found to begin around the third millennium before the common era.

Fig. 1

Timeline showing the rapid increase in coat color variation in horses around the Bronze Age. The size of the pie charts corresponds to the frequency of the respective phenotype. B indicates bay color; Bl, black; C, chestnut; T, tobiano; S, sabino; Bu, buckskin; and Bs, black silver. Sample sizes from left to right are 16, 18, 26, and 29 specimens.