Ludovic Orlando

Research director Ludovic Orlando talks about the groundbreaking genealogical investigation that led him and a team of fellow international scientists to uncover the genomic history of horse domestication.

Orlando explains how he brought together world-class experts in genomics, archaeology and the history of peoples, languages and migrations to trace the history of the horse. They compared the DNA of ancient horses with modern horse breeds and reconstructed thousands of years of equine history. Orlando says scientists now believe horses were first domesticated on the steppes of the North Caucasus more than 4,000 years ago. And he explains how the domestication of the horse changed the course of civilisation and had both benefits and unforeseen consequences for the animals themselves.

Orlando holds a silver-medal from the French national centre for scientific research and is founding director of the Centre for Anthropobiology and Genomics of Toulouse at the University of Toulouse.