science

Wild ancestor

Wild ancestor is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Wild ancestor rather than just read about it. In short: Wild ancestors are the original species from which domesticated plants and animals are derived. Examples include dogs which are derived from wolves and flax which is derived from Linum bienne.

Key takeaways

Wild ancestor belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Wild ancestor to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Wild ancestor from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Wild ancestors are the original species from which domesticated plants and animals are derived. Examples include dogs which are derived from wolves and flax which is derived from Linum bienne. In most cases the wild ancestor species still exists, but some domesticated species, such as camels, have no surviving wild relatives. In many cases there is considerable debate in the scientific community about the identity of the wild ancestor or ancestors, as the process of domestication involves natural selection, artificial selection, and hybridization. Wild ancestors have gone through genetic changes to achieve biological mutualism with humans. This is due to humans selectively breeding those species.

Theory

All living creatures are derived from a common wild ancestor. With time and the help of humans or nature, living beings adapt to their surroundings by gradual changes whether visible or not. According to Darwin, there are two different categories that may cause wild ancestors to change to their modern or domesticated counterparts: natural selection and artificial selection. Natural selection, as the name suggests, is environmentally driven; this occurs when more advantageous traits are passed down ensuring survival of the fittest, whereas artificial selection occurs through humans intentionally breeding creatures to attain desirable traits. Both of these allow the wild ancestors to evolve. Ancestors of two different species may overlap. A term for this is concestor—coined by Nicky Warren—from the book The Ancestor's Tale by Richard Dawkins. Generally, wild ancestors have a similar genetic code to their descendants, although different or additional gene mutations are found in their modern counterparts.

Wild ancestors in animals

Most animals are tuned to modern life by artificial selection. This is either due to the pressure of early hunter-gatherers' attempts to stabilise the food supply, which resulted in the existence of domesticated farm animals, or domestication of pets which are useful to humans. Different animal species undergo different pathways of domestication although they almost always result in one common trait, which is tolerance of proximity to humans or lack of fear of humans and increased reproductivity. An example of the wild ancestor of an animal bred as a food source is in chickens. The ancestor of the domesticated chicken, the red junglefowl, is believed to have an origin in parts of South and Southeast Asia. Around 8,000 years ago humans started to breed this species for food. A study has shown that the act of domestication for the chickens caused the gene mutation involving a gene known as TSHR, which was found only in domestic populations. This implied that this gene in particular may have some involvement in the domestication of bird species. The domestication of the wolf is a different process altogether as it is the result of two interwoven processes which happened during the nomadic period of hunter-gatherers in humans. The process started by less fearful wolves scavenging in human settlements and the humans utilising their presence as an alarm, which may warn humans of invaders whether it be humans or predatory animals approaching at night (Lindsay, 2000). Afterwards, the process of self-domestication of the wolves began. Wolves with friendly traits have a higher chance of survival as conflicts with humans are lessened. As friendlier wolves bred together for generations, they gradually evolved into the modern domestic dog. In this case of domestication, the phases of natural and artificial selection were blended together. In other cases, animals adapt to their ecology, and since the environment continuously differs, they continually adapt and change as well. They may also migrate and branch off and evolve into a new species.

Wild ancestors in plants

Thousands of years ago, humans started to settle and grow crops. This change in human behaviour from nomadic to sedentary marked the start of the domestication process of plants. Many wild ancestors of plants still coexist with the modern domesticated crops; these are called crop wild relatives. A lot of crop plants were also moved into human-managed conditions which caused the selection pressures to differ from the plants in their normal environment creating a significant difference in traits, life cycle and appearance compared to the original predecessor. Many significant changes can be seen in modern cultivated watermelons (Citrullus lanatus), which are believed to have derived from Citrullus colocynthis after being domesticated as a water and food source in northeastern Africa over 4000 years ago. Citrullus colocynthis, which now still exists as a crop wild relative known as the desert gourd or thorny apple, were small, bitter in taste and yellow or green inside, while modern watermelons are mainly large, red or yellow in color and sweet tasting. The same goes for other common crops cultivated nowadays; most of them have evolved to be suited to the human palate.

Wild ancestors and their domesticated counterparts

Differences Compared to their wild ancestors, the domesticated counterparts of living creatures underwent several changes depending on various factors and pathways of evolution.

Physical appearance Domestic animals show differences in physical appearance in comparison to their wild ancestors as they underwent some changes such as having floppier ears, bigger skulls, curlier tail and changes in coat colour or pattern, as noted in domestications of dogs and the experimental domesticated red fox in Russia by Dmitry Belyayev. Changes in physical appearance which are caused by selective breeding can be seen in pets such as koi fish and betta fish which are bred for aesthetic purposes or dogs bred for extreme physical appearances (e.g. extremely short snouts in pugs or bulldogs, short limbs on dachshunds, extremely small sizes in "teacup dogs"). Extreme physical appearances in selectively bred animals may cause health problems, which may cause wild ancestors to have longer natural lifespans.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Wild ancestor

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Wild ancestor claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Wild ancestor before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Wild ancestor ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Wild ancestor

In research: Wild ancestor appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Wild ancestor in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Wild ancestor is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Domestication, Wild ancestors of domesticated animals, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Wild ancestor outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Wild ancestor in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Wild ancestor means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Wild ancestor out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Wild ancestor in simple terms?

Wild ancestors are the original species from which domesticated plants and animals are derived. Examples include dogs which are derived from wolves and flax which is derived from Linum bienne.

Why does Wild ancestor matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Wild ancestor?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Wild ancestor.