The article aims to determine why so few domestic animals originated in American domestication centres. The knowledge has been gathered from interdisciplinary sources taking into account recent archaeogenomic and spatial analysis research. The process of domestication is described, and different domestication centres are compared to the domestication needs and opportunities on the American continents. Human colonization of the American continent is considered. Important domestication centres on the North and South American continent are described. Dogs that colonized the American continents together with people and horses that arrived during the European colonization are also considered. The analysis of the American megafauna that lived on the continent during the first colonization of Homo sapiens showed that the big extinction occurred due to climate change and overhunting. Comparing the evolutionary process of domestication between Afro-Eurasia and America we found that there was no intentional domestication in areas peripheral to the original domestication centres in the Americas. Also, diversification of the domesticated animal purpose in the Americas is limited to dogs.

KEY WORDS
North America, South America, domestication, animals, megafauna

CLASSIFICATION

JEL:

N50