![]() This migrating Neolithic niche presumably put additional pressures on Europeans to adapt to a new diet in a novel environment. Such is the case with domestication that was developed in the sunny warm climates of the Middle East and spread throughout Europe from east‐to‐west and south‐to‐north by 6,000 years ago (4000 BCE) (Pinhasi et al., 2005). Unlike other organisms, humans have the ability to carry or adopt a niche that was constructed in one particular environment to new and novel environments. The best known example of adaptation to the Neolithic diet is the spread of the lactase persistence allele allowing the consumption of milk postweaning (Cochran and Harpending, 2009 Laland and O'Brien, 2010 Gerbault et al., 2011 Rogers, 2011). ![]() An example of culturally induced niche construction is the Neolithic diet, with a shift to domestication, beginning in the Middle East about 11,000 years ago (Cordain et al., 2002 Laland and O'Brien, 2010). ![]() This process of niche construction may affect the direction of evolution (Odling‐Smee et al., 1996 Laland and Brown, 2006). Humans not only adapt to their environment but also, alter their immediate environment by extracting food and water, and developing shelter and technologies. ![]()
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