A glimpse of Domestication

Domesticated cover

NCSE is pleased to offer a free preview (PDF) of Richard C. Francis's Domesticated: Evolution in a Man-Made World (W. W. Norton, 2015). The preview consists of chapter 3, "Cats," in which Francis concludes, "The vast majority of cats have escaped artificial selection. They are self-domesticated."

The reviewer for Publishers Weekly writes, "Offering an effective primer on molecular genetics and the field of evolutionary development, [Francis] also demonstrates how conservative evolution can be, even while documenting some of the amazing changes species have undergone in relatively short periods of time due to strong selection imposed by humans."