Posted on 11/17/2013 4:22:00 PM PST by SunkenCiv
...based on a recently completed study, Olaf Thalmann of the University of Turku, Finland, and colleagues are suggesting that Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers in Europe as much as 32,000 years ago may have played a significant role in the process. To come to this conclusion, Thalmann and his team compared mitochondrial DNA from a broad range of modern-day dog and wolf breeds to mitochondrial DNA from canine fossils dated to 19,000-32,000 years ago, as well as fossils from modern canines. Their analysis showed that modern dogs’ genetic sequences most closely matched those of either ancient European canines, including wolves, or modern European dogs, but did not closely match DNA from canines outside of Europe. According to the researchers, this suggests a European origin, and, as only hunter-gatherer populations were present during this period, a domestication that predates the advent of agriculture.
It has been previously thought that fields and crops attracted wolves to villages, leading to interactions with humans that eventually resulted in a cooperative or symbiotic relationship. Human intervention in canine evolution thus produced the variety of modern dog breeds commonly seen today in homes and dog parks throughout the world. But this study, along with clues from other research and excavations, pushes the origins back further to the Palaeolithic Age, when wild wolves may have been drawn to hunter-gatherers, the researchers suggest, because they could feed on carcasses the hunters left behind.
(Excerpt) Read more at popular-archaeology.com ...
A lateral view of a Palaeolithic dog from the Goyet cave (Belgium), calibrated age of 36,000 years Before the Present. Thalmann et al. believe the species represented by this fossil to be an ancient sister-group to all modern dogs and wolves, rather than a direct ancestor. [Image courtesy of Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences]
If I had been around, canines would not have been domesticated....way to needy.
;-)
This is very interesting.
They came in handy as a last resort food source, as well.
They give good cuddle on a cold Paleolithic night, too!
This would apply more to cats, who would've been attracted by the rodents eating the grain.
Doggie Ping?
A Paleolithic Canis lupus ate my cave-baby
I picked out a sheet of material like you see in showers that is slick and strong. Had a workman install that wall and she never approached that wall again. She knew she couldn't get through it. I gave her cardboard boxes to dig in the sides of the boxes and she put holes in those boxes.
She never found a mouse or a rat in the holes she dug but I could have told her she wouldn't find any.
When did man invent bacon? Connect the dots! ;^)
I watch that Westminster Kennel Club show every year. I keep hoping that a Weiner dog will leap into the stands and grab someone by the throat. I know....not much chance of that happening. More likely Chihuahuas.
“Before the Present”
Haven’t seen that one before. I thought the current New Age circumlocution to avoid “BC” and “AD” was “BCE” and “CE”. Is “Before the Present” a new and improved way to be hip?
(Interesting thread, BTW, SunkenCiv, and not intending to take the domestication history of canines down a side alley.)
I have the weirdest Chihuahua in the world. Not disposed to be like a Chihuahua at all.
Very sweet, loves people, not overly yippy, and very smart and easy to train. Instead of being suspicious of strangers, if they come in and sit down, she insists on jumping up in their laps and “getting to know them”.
Don’t get me wrong; she can be a pistol, especially when she gets too rambunctious with the cat, but that’s the exception, not the rule.
Plus, she’s twice the size of either of her parents. She weighs almost 20 lbs and she’s not fat at all.
So I would guess we have two competing hypotheses:
A. Farming people domesticated wolf/dogs to help protect their fields.
B. Hunter/gatherers domesticate wolf/dogs to help them find game or other food.
The new evidence favors B for now.
A 20 pound Chihuahua!!! And it’s all muscle!!! My word!!! Are you sure it’s not a Shetland Pony?
without directly saying it, the report suggests (a) domestication of canines occurred earlier in Europe than elsewhere and (b) possibly very very much earlier, and (c) which MAY explain the cultural roots in some Asian societies where eating canines STILL has some adherents today (and was even more common in the past we modern humans know about)
And even some adherents in today's White House.
I would love to see our pansie president try to eat my German Shepard.
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![A lateral view of a Palaeolithic dog from the Goyet cave (Belgium), calibrated age of 36,000 years Before the Present. Thalmann et al. believe the species represented by this fossil to be an ancient sister-group to all modern dogs and wolves, rather than a direct ancestor. [Image courtesy of Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences]](http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3745/10838747734_e8e3aeeb2c.jpg)
