Happy New Year! In China, it’s the Year of the Pig. Pigs
have long been a mainstay of Eurasian societies since they were domesticated,
proving critical protein for relatively low cost, and allowed for the
Polynesians to conquer the Pacific and the Europeans to thrive in the New
World. The Egyptians considered them
evil and diseased, and the Jewish and Muslim examples followed their example. But it says something the Romans loved them
so much they refused to adopt that dietary law.
Pigs have been a success story
in history. It’s time to talk about
their evolutionary story.
Pigs are basal artiodactyls-their closest relatives are the
similarly Suine Peccaries, more basal camels, and more derived ungulates such
as hippos, whales and extinct entelodonts, followed by camels, then by
ruminants.
So where do Suines come from?
