Humans domesticated dogs thousands of years earlier than previously thought, according to new research.
Analysis of canine bones in Alaska it shows a man and a dog were living together much earlier than previously thought – about 10,000 BC.
The bones contained salmon protein, indicating that the dogs ate fish that must have been caught by humans – a sign of domestication.
Researchers from the University of Arizona found a 12,000-year-old fossil of a giant wolf at the Swan Point archaeological site, located 70 miles southeast of Fairbanks.
Swan Point is one of several sites in the area that have some of that the oldest signs of human existence in the government.
This old dog was alive nearby the end of the Ice Age, showing that Alaskan Indians developed relationships with dogs 2,000 years earlier than previous research.
The researchers believe that this recovered leg bone helps establish the ancient relationship known between humans and dogs in the Americas.
Additionally, the team found an 8,100-year-old dog jaw at an excavation site near Hollembaek Hill south of Delta Junction, providing evidence that domesticated dogs continue to be present in human settlements.
Researchers unearthed an 8,100-year-old canine bone (above) in Alaska in June 2023. The bone is one of the oldest pieces of evidence that the ancestors of today’s dogs formed close relationships with Native Americans about 2,000 years earlier than previously thought.
“People like me who are interested in the American people are interested in knowing whether the first Americans brought dogs,” said lead study author François Lanoë, assistant professor of anthropology at the University of. Arizona.
‘Until you find those animals in the archaeological site, we can speculate about it, but it’s hard to prove otherwise.’
But research by Lanoë and his colleagues has found the missing evidence.
‘We now have evidence that canids and humans had closer relationships earlier than we know in the Americas,’ said Lanoë.
Medical research found that the bones contained a protein called salmon, which indicates that the dogs ate fish all the time.
This was surprising because dogs in this area and at that time only hunted land animals.
Therefore, the most plausible explanation is that the dog was fed fish caught by humans, the researchers concluded.
‘This is the smoking gun because they’re not driving wild salmon out of the wild,’ said study author Ben Potter, an archaeologist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
Pictured above, a dig site known as ‘Hollembaek Hill,’ south of Delta Junction in Alaska where an ancient jaw was unearthed. Archaeologists have been conducting research in collaboration with local tribes in this area of Delta Junction
This jawbone and leg bone found in Swan Point, Alaska (shown above in the composite image) both showed evidence of salmon proteins in lab tests – leading the team to conclude that ancient humans may have fed fish to canines, who did not hunt fish in the wild. forest
But both Lanoë and Potter pointed out that the evidence, despite the clear signs of early dog domestication, is still a long way from a settled period.
‘It asks, what is a dog?’ as Potter said.
These friendly, salmon-eating animals, Lanoë said, may have been closer to domesticated wolves than the early model of specially bred dogs and herders that we might recognize today.
Above, a photo of François Lanoë, an assistant professor at the University of Arizona School of Anthropology, after helping uncover an 8,100-year-old canine jaw in June 2023.
The researcher noted that this evidence – although it shows the time when dogs were domesticated – is still far from a fixed time. Above is an illustration of an American who was walking with his canine companion
‘Behaviourally, they look like dogs,’ according to Lanoë, ‘but naturally, they are not related to anything we know.’
In excavating the Hollembaek Hill site, the research team worked closely with the Healy Lake Village Council, the leadership group of the Mendas Cha’ag people in the area.
A Healy Lake native who is now an archeologist, Evelynn Combs, helped with the research as part of her work at the tribal preservation office.
Combs spent his childhood exploring the countryside in and around the Tanana Valley with his dog Rosebud, a Labrador retriever mix. He was fascinated by how these new discoveries gave history to the traditions he lived in.
“I really like the idea that, in the registry, even in the past, it’s a recurring theme that I have this relationship and love with my dog,” Combs said.
‘I know that throughout history, these relationships have always existed,’ he continued. ‘I love that we can look at the record and see that thousands of years ago, we had friends.’
