Simmental Cow
In the days before Charles Darwin (1809-1882), many people believed God had created every living creature. Some scholars suggested evolution as an alternative to that belief, but were never able to substantiate that claim. After a five-year scientific voyage on board the HMS Beagle, Darwin became convinced there really was such a thing as evolution. In order to sharpen his ideas, he studied selective breeding of animals: People select the specimens with the desired characteristics and have those mate witch each other. This way, we end up with certain dog breeds that make for excellent watchdogs or certain cow breeds that produce lots of milk.
This Simmental cow is part of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine’s educational collection.
What is a Simmental cow?
This Simmental cow is part of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine’s educational collection. The collection shows us various breeds of cattle and teaches students how to distinguish between different breeds based on physical characteristics.
What is artificial selection?
Darwin’ ideas on natural selection were inspired by the process of artificial selection that breeders used to create livestock. They would select animals with desirable traits and had them mate with each other. This way, for instance, breeds of cattle with extraordinary muscle development were bred. Darwin presumed nature worked in a similar way: it selects those organisms with a higher chance of survival.
