We're thrilled to be taking part in this eighth @GlobalSciShow!

For our feature, we're going to be focusing in on one key area of English rural history. A very rectangular one.

The science behind these very square cows:

From the mid 18th century onwards, livestock portraiture became an established artform in England - a tradition replete with spectacularly rectangular sheep, pigs, cows, and more.

This resulted from a period of extensive agricultural reform, with one of the most significant innovations being the development of the science of selective breeding.

And when a breeder was particularly delighted with an animal they'd bred, they'd have its portrait made.

Of course, these portraits wildly overemphasise the features that breeders thought so desierable. These cows are like Lego bricks, or Minecraft cattle.

So, please don't take these portraits as if they're realistic. Of course, you can if you'd like to.

your imagination is your own but please use it responsibly

We explore this history in much greater depth in this blogpost from 2015, which contains even more very square cows that you can enjoy at your leisure. Just like people would have done over two hundred years ago. https://merl.reading.ac.uk/news-and-views/2015/10/consuming-the-fat-cows/

Of course, every now and then, life imitates art.

But it's important to remember that sheep like these result from the same tradition of selective breeding as the very square livestock of the paintings. But with a little better anti-aliasing, is all. https://twitter.com/themerl/status/983341970318938112?lang=en