The 21st Century

These two extracts are  from Darwin's  book ''The variation of animals and‘ plants under domestication (volume 1). I think they are a good summary of what livestock adaptation is about: fuelled by its 'intrinsic' diversity and shaped by nature and human

’ I have often speculated on the probable cause through which each separate district in Great Britain came to possess in former times its own peculiar breed of cattle…..’’

‘’… I conclude that, although slight differences in the nature of the climate, food, etc., as well as changed habits of life, aided by correlation of growth, and the occasional appearance from unknown causes of considerable deviations of structure, have all probably played their parts; yet the occasional preservation in each district of those individual animals which were more valued by each owner has perhaps been even more effective in the production of the several British breeds…’’