What caused the change?
Labs / History
Tamed or Wild
Only a handful of species can ever be domesticated — and, like happy families, each must pass every test at once. Click a candidate to check it against the six criteria, then switch continents and watch how a wide east–west axis lets crops race along one climate band while a north–south axis stalls them.
Labs / History / Tamed or Wild
Tamed or Wild
Only a handful of species can ever be domesticated — and, like happy families, each must pass every test at once. Click a candidate to check it against the six criteria, then switch continents and watch how a wide east–west axis lets crops race along one climate band while a north–south axis stalls them.
Why it matters
Why explore this?
History is about change over time and the choices that shape it. This model helps you compare causes, consequences, and patterns without treating the past as a list of dates.
Explore
Try the model
Tamed 2 / 9Axis E–WHead-start ~700 yr
Investigate
Questions to test
Predict first, try it in the model, then use what you observe to answer.
What to try
- The zebra has an efficient diet and grows fast, so why does it stay wild? Which single criterion condemns it?
- Eurasia and the Americas both grew maize-like staples — why does Eurasia's head-start come out so much larger?
- Switch to Australia. Its axis is east–west, yet the head-start is nearly zero — what is a shared axis worth with no species to spread along it?
- Turn on climate bands and watch the spreading dots. Why do north–south crops turn amber and fade before they get far?
- Hit "Reveal all" on each continent. Where does the plant-versus-animal balance of domesticable species differ the most?
Explain
Make sense of what happened
Build an explanation with a cause, a change, and a consequence. Then identify evidence from the model and one limitation of what the model can show.
Check
Before you leave
Who or what was affected?
What can this model not tell us?
If you can answer all three using evidence from the model, you understand the main idea. If not, return to Explore and change one setting at a time.