Human-Dog Bond May Have Started Earlier than We Thought
By Juliana Weiss-Roessler
It’s hard to imagine a time before dogs were man’s best friend. Maybe that’s why the origins of canine domestication are a matter of such contention in many scientific circles.
Were humans simply attracted to small, cute wolf puppies, adopting them as a novelty? Did we start out raising them for food? Or did we enlist the help of dogs on the hunt?
The question is particularly complicated because of the tricky genetic history of canines. Dogs and wolves frequently interbred. It’s hard to distinguish ancient dog remains from those of ancient wolves. And, of course, human breeding to enhance particular talents, traits, and behaviors has further muddled the genetic pool.
But new evidence may finally settle the debate. It turns out that humans and dogs were likely drawn together much earlier – and much farther north – than we thought!
From the Ice Age Wolf to the Modern Dog
Before new genetic studies, many experts believed that domestication took place as recently as 13,000 years ago. One of the most famous pieces of evidence is a 12,000-year-old burial site in Israel containing the remains of an older man cradling a puppy in his arms – a moving image of the early human-canine bond.
But after comparing the mitochondrial genomes of eighteen ancient dogs and wolves to those of modern pups and even coyotes, scientists have determined that canine domestication likely occurred between 18,800 and 32,100 years ago in Ice Age Europe.
The modern dog actually evolved from a species of European wolf that’s now extinct. At the start, the wolves were large and aggressive carnivores, simply scavenging on the scraps left behind by human hunts. But over time, they began to fill a role in the hunter-gatherer society, probably helping to locate prey and scaring off other predators that would interfere with the humans’ hunt.
If we initially brought dogs into our lives to do a job, it only reinforces the importance of keeping their modern counterparts challenged – physically and mentally. And in fact, many households still enlist their dogs’ help for similar tasks, such as alerting them to potential intruders, ridding their homes of pests, or even accompanying them on modern hunts.
It’s not hard to imagine how proto-dogs could quickly become an integral part of the humanpack, and we have them to thank for the companionship, loyalty, and love we enjoy from our dogs today.
