Posted on 08/03/2011 9:53:08 AM PDT by decimon
A very well-preserved 33,000 year old canine skull from a cave in the Siberian Altai mountains shows some of the earliest evidence of dog domestication ever found.
But the specimen raises doubts about early man's loyalty to his new best friend as times got tough.
The findings come from a Russian-led international team of archaeologists.
The skull, from shortly before the peak of the last ice age, is unlike those of modern dogs or wolves.
The study is published in the open access journal Plos One.
Although the snout is similar in size to early, fully domesticated Greenland dogs from 1,000 years ago, its large teeth resemble those of 31,000 year-old wild European wolves.
This indicates a dog in the very early stages of domestication, says evolutionary biologist Dr Susan Crockford, one of the authors on the study.
"The wolves were not deliberately domesticated, the process of making a wolf into a dog was a natural process," explained Dr Crockford of Pacific Identifications, Canada.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
Deliberately domesticated ping.
My conclusion also....absolutely.....and I didn’t even get paid the $100,000 a year theory fee...
On the other hand the dog, unlike just about any other animal, will naturally leap into its owner's arms if given the chance.
They don't need to be trained to do that.
Sure, they're social animals, and you can get them to sleep together in large piles if you want, but this business of leaping on people without aggressive purpose is kind of what you'd expect of FOOD, not a HUNTER.
So, you're hungry ~ time for stew ~ and you step outside the stockade, whistle for your dog (or one of the tribes dogs) and he comes running over, leaps up and you cut his throat ~ not even a sound of surprise.
That's gotta' been bred into 'em.
You get into a bad winter, the dogs are gone ~ and that's what looks liked happened to this dog.
Got Amundsen back from the South Pole.
“Ancient Aliens”.
;D
Eating something that trusts and loves you seems like a betrayal, and nearly as loathsome as cannibalism. I hope I’m never that hungry.
They are clearly livestock.
“This indicates a dog in the very early stages of domestication, says evolutionary biologist Dr Susan Crockford, one of the authors on the study.
“The wolves were not deliberately domesticated, the process of making a wolf into a dog was a natural process,” explained Dr Crockford of Pacific Identifications, Canada. “
Crockford is a crackpot. If this was a “natural process” it should be in process now wherever sloppy people live next to wolves, or there should have been records of it ocurring in the past.
It never happened in historical times for the simple fact that civilized people stopped domesticating wolves because they had already evolved out dogs from captured wolf cubs.
Cujo
http://www.sibfox.com/ After about 8 generations fox offspring began to show doglike characteristics. Seems to be a natural thing with Carnivora. The European circus bears in Russia are not taken from the wild when young ~ they are the result of a similar practice of breeding “nice bears” for many generations.
Thanks for that link. Isaw a TV show about them recently.
We need to start some New Tame Foxes ourselves.
Foxes are neat. So are FOXES!!!!
Whoops! Thanks decimon!
|
|
GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach | |
Thanks TheOldLady. |
|
|
If TSHTF, the first people to get over the social taboos of eating PUPPIES! and KITTIES! and other cuddly critters will be more likely to survive than others— especially in urban terain.
For me, it won’t even take that much hunger; if I and mine have no meat, and the animal within rifle range is made of it, the animal is going DOWN. If it’s wearing a collar, oh well.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.