Spawned from this post, I became curious about sheep and other animals which are now domesticated. I realize this isn't really a 'wild' sheep, but it is the picture that got me thinking about it; a quick Google search easily reveals wild sheep in varying degrees of 'flow'.
What were they like prior to humans? Is this picture an accurate representation? It doesn't appear as if it can see very well from under that thick layer of wool, which can't be a beneficial trait. Does anyone know or is that too far into pre-history for there to be real knowledge on the subject?
Domestic sheep's woolly coats were bred into them through artificial selection by humans. The wild ancestor of sheep was the mouflon. They have rough, short hair in summer, grow a woolly under-coat in winter, then shed it in spring. So no, that picture isn't representative!
We generally know quite a lot about the process of domesticating animals in prehistory but, since our main source of evidence is bones, when exactly people started using sheep for their wool (and therefore when sheep started to become more woolly) is still a bit of a mystery. I believe there's ongoing research trying to answer the question using ancient DNA, though.
