The manuscript uses the following data sources, which are copied as .csv files (in the "Data" sub-folder) and are cited in the paper. **Simulations** **Shetland Sheep population:** Peter R.W. Popkin, Polydora Baker, Fay Worley, Sebastian Payne, Andy Hammon, (2012). The Sheep Project (1): determining skeletal growth, timing of epiphyseal fusion and morphometric variation in unimproved Shetland sheep of known age, sex, castration status and nutrition, *Journal of Archaeological Science*, 39 (6): 1775-1792. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2012.01.018 (Supplemental material) **Archaeological Case Studies** Please also see Section 3.2 of the manuscript for descriptions of the archaeological datasets with citations to the data and relevant literature. **Barcın Höyük:** Alfred Galik. "Barçın Höyük Zooarchaeology". (2013) Alfred Galik (Ed.) . Released: 2013-02-25. Open Context. <http://opencontext.org/projects/74749949-4FD4-4C3E-C830-5AA75703E08E> DOI: https://doi.org/10.6078/M78G8HM0 ARK (Archive): https://n2t.net/ark:/28722/k2s46h774 **Ilıpınar Höyük:** Hijlke Buitenhuis. "Ilıpınar Zooarchaeology". (2013) Hijlke Buitenhuis (Ed.) . Released: 2013-08-12. Open Context. <http://opencontext.org/projects/D297CD29-50CA-4B2C-4A07-498ADF3AF487> DOI: https://doi.org/10.6078/M76H4FB **Menteşe Höyük:** Lionel Gourichon, Daniel Helmer. "Faunal Data from Neolithic Menteşe". (2014) Lionel Gourichon, Daniel Helmer (Eds.) . Released: 2014-05-12. Open Context. <http://opencontext.org/projects/42EAD4DB-BAED-4A58-9B9B-7EC85266D2A9> DOI: https://doi.org/10.6078/M7S46PVN ARK (Archive): https://n2t.net/ark:/28722/k2q52rd1k **Pinarbaşı B:** Denise Carruthers. "Pınarbaşı 1994: Animal Bones". (2006) Denise Carruthers (Ed.) . Released: 2006-03-25. Open Context. <http://opencontext.org/projects/TESTPRJ0000000004> ARK (Archive): https://n2t.net/ark:/28722/k2zs2vk0z