The thick woolly fleece of the domestic sheep is its distinguishing feature and the source of much of its economic importance . Yet only a moment, in evolutionary terms, has passed since the domestic sheep had a coat resembling that of many other wild line animals.
What are the meaning of the underlined parts?
“… and the source of much of its economic importance” is saying that wool is a major reason why sheep are valuable.
“only a moment, in evolutionary terms” = a period of time that may be thousands of years (say), but is still relatively short (just a “moment”) when compared to the extremely long timescales over which evolution operates. So, it is saying that the appearance of sheep’s thick fleeces is evolutionarily very recent (and possibly due to selective breeding by man, I would assume).
“wild line animals” does not make any sense. The word “line” looks like a typo, but I’m not sure what for.
Ho Dozy,
It just hit me: maybe “line” is supposed to be “life”? Wildlife animals?
However, “wildlife” is one word (as you write), and “wildlife animals” is in any case not correct English.
Ohh, I see, point taken.
The thick woolly fleece of the domestic sheep is its distinguishing feature and the source of much of its economic importance .
The bold part look odd to you. Does it? if it then what will be the better way?
It looks fine to me. The double ‘of’ is needed there.