Apparently, Dog’s been man’s best friend a longer than we thought.
“An ancient dog skull found in Siberia and dating back 33,000 years presents some of the oldest known evidence of dog domestication,” reports Fox News.
When compared with a similar find in Belgium, the two skulls indicate that the “domestication of dogs by humans occurred repeatedly throughout early human history at different geographic locations – rather than at a single domestication event, as previously believed,” (FoxNews).
Because the Altai Mountain skull was extraordinarily well persevered all these years, scientist have been able to make multiple measurements of the skull, teeth and mandibles that might not be possible on less well-preserved remains.
Greg Hodgins, a researcher at the University of Arizona’s Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Laboratory and co-author of a study reporting the find said “essentially, wolves have long snouts and their teeth are not crowded, and domestication results in this shortening of the snout and widening of the jaws and crowding of the teeth.”
Hodgins also said “the interesting thing is that typically we think of domestication as being cows, sheep and goats, things that product food through meat or secondary agricultural products such as milk, cheese and wool and things like that…. Those are different relationships than humans may have with dogs. The dogs are not necessarily providing products or meat. They are probably providing protection, companionship and perhaps helping on the hunt.”
This finding shows just how far back our special relationship with our canine companions goes, which appears to be the first out of all human relationships with animals.
For more information on the ancient dog skull found in Siberia, click HERE.
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