Marcelo R. Sánchez-Villagra Interview Formafantasma, Oltre Terra NAM Nasjonalmuseet, Oslo NO Formafantasma recorded and conducted a series of interviews as a means of creating a continuous dialogue with practitioners from a variety of fields of expertise, such as universities, museums, cultural associations, and shepherds. All the interviews, together with other research material, will soon be available in a dedicated website. Marcelo R. Sánchez-Villagra is Professor of Palaeontology at the University of Zürich and head of the lab of evolutionary morphology and palaeobiology of vertebrates at that institution. In this interview, Sánchez discusses his primary interest in the domestication process and his ongoing research into the evolution of morphology and animal diversity. In nature, organisms have different kinds of interactions with one another, some of which are beneficial for both parties, and others that benefit only one party. Humans are only one aspect of the story and some animal species have benefited or contributed as much to domestication as humans have. And yet there is a kind of snobbery against domesticated animals on the part of biologists. This may have led to the notion that nature and wildness are good, or at least better than human created things, which are bad. According to Marcelo Sánchez, the domestication syndrome is also increasingly discussed in precautionary terms as a set of characteristics that may occur in a variety of species independently. However, it is not universal, and not all species respond in the same way to selection during the domestication process. There may be a similarity between features produced by similar selection regimes because all these species share a common thread of development, developmental biology, which we humans also share. As a result, there is a continuing discussion among biologists, with some pointing to commonalities and others to the absence of universals in this regard. Sources: 1 - Interview with Marcelo R. Sánchez-Villagra, Professor of Palaeontology at the University of Zürich #formafantasma #oltreterra #NAMoslo #nasjonalmuseet #design #research #MarceloSánchezVillagra @nasjonalmuseet