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A team of Spanish researchers has dated the bone of the oldest domesticated dog. It turns out that humans have been befriending their canine companions for over 17,000 years. This discovery indicates that dogs have been living alongside people much longer than previously thought.
The debate among scientists about when exactly humans domesticated dogs has persisted for decades. A shoulder bone from a canid (wolf-like dog), discovered in the Spanish Erralla cave back in 1985, has shed light on the timeline of our four-legged friends’ domestication.
The Bone Awaits the Scientists’ Verdict
So, when and how did dogs separate from their wolf ancestors and become domesticated? Using the ancient fractured bone from the Spanish cave, researchers have found a new answer to this question.
A team from the University of the Basque Country established when our relationship with companion dogs began. Thanks to cutting-edge scientific analysis methods, the researchers made a discovery that would have been impossible 37 years ago. It is now known that the shoulder bone from the Erralla cave dates back between 17,410 and 17,096 years.
The researchers assert that this is not a wolf but a dog, Canis Familiaris (domestic dog). This ancient shoulder bone is the oldest dog bone ever examined by scientists.
To uncover this information, the team, led by geneticist and anthropologist Montserrat Hervella, primarily used radiocarbon dating. This method allowed them to pinpoint when this animal lived on Earth. Genetic and morphological analyses helped the scientists determine the species.
The Canis Familiaris that owned the bone shared a common mitochondrial lineage with other dogs from the Magdalenian period of the Upper Paleolithic (17,000–9,000 years ago), whose remains have been found in other regions of Western Europe. For instance, bones from Gironde (France) were dated to 15,114–14,237 years ago, while those from Bonn-Oberkassel (Germany) were dated to 14,809–13,319 years ago.
Wolves Became Attached to Humans and Self-Domesticated
The origins of these dogs are likely linked to the last glacial maximum (around 22,000 years ago). During this time, the Earth experienced extremely harsh cold conditions. Wolves began to self-domesticate as they became attached to human settlements.
According to archaeology professor Conchi de la Rua, these results increase the likelihood that the domestication of wolves occurred earlier than previously believed. At least in Western Europe, “where the interaction between Paleolithic hunter-gatherers and wild species, such as wolves, may have been intensified in glacial refugia (such as the Franco-Cantabrian region) during this climatic crisis.”
It is worth noting that recent studies by other research teams have indicated that the domestication of dogs occurred multiple times, as reported by ScienceAlert.
