The domestication of livestock represented a crucial step in human history. By using endogenous
retroviruses as genetic markers, we found that sheep differentiated on the basis of their “retrotype”
and morphological traits dispersed across Eurasia and Africa via separate migratory episodes.
Relicts of the first migrations include the Mouflon, as well as breeds previously recognized as
“primitive” on the basis of their morphology, such as the Orkney, Soay, and the Nordic short-tailed