Mary Allen
How long do dogs accompany people? Researchers at the University of Arkansas asked themselves this question and found that the dog was likely domesticated during the Ice Age.
A study of a tooth in a fossil dated to about 28,500 years old from the Czech Republic shows that at that time there were already differences between canine and wolf-like animals. Various diets suggest that by this time the dog was already tamed by humans, that is, kept as pets. This is the conclusion the researchers came to in their recently published study.
To do this, they examined and compared the tissues of the teeth of wolf-like and canine animals. Scientists observed unmistakable patterns that distinguished canines from wolves. The teeth of Ice Age dogs had more scratches than early wolves. This suggests that they ate harder and more fragile food. For example, bones or other human food debris.
Evidence for Domestic Dogs Goes Back Over 28,000 Years
On the other hand, the ancestors of wolves ate meat. For example, earlier research suggests that wolf-like animals may have consumed mammoth meat, among other things. “Our main goal was to test whether these morphotypes have markedly different behaviors based on wear patterns,” explains Peter Unger, one of the researchers, to Science Daily. This way of working is very promising for distinguishing from wolves.
Keeping dogs as pets is considered the first form of domestication. Even before people started farming, they kept dogs. Despite this, scientists are still debating when and why humans domesticated dogs. It is estimated that from 15,000 to 40,000 years ago, that is, during the Ice Age.