8,000 years of wild and domestic animal body size data reveal long-term synchrony and recent divergence due to intensified human impact

Abstract

This study explores how human and environmental influences shaped animal morphology over the last 8,000 y. By analyzing body size evolution in wild and domestic animals from the Northwestern Mediterranean, it reveals long-term synchrony in their trajectories until the Middle Ages, suggesting shared ecological constraints. In the last millennium, these trajectories diverged as human influence intensified, promoting unprecedented increases in domestic species body size, while wild species exhibited a trend toward decreased size. These findings underscore the long-term, dynamic interdependence between environmental change, human agency, and animal morphology, highlighting the deep and lasting prevalence of environmental influences on all species and, in the last millennium, the increasing impact of human activities.