The dog. No one can pinpoint exactly when humans first started keeping dogs as pets, but estimates range from roughly 13,000 to 30,000 years ago. Archaeologists can tell domesticated canines apart from wolves through skeletal differences: Dogs had smaller teeth, for example, and a reduced “Sagittal crest”—the bone ridge that runs down the forehead and connects to the jaw. The earliest dog bones, discovered in Belgium in 2008, are from 31,700 years ago. But ancient dog skeletons have also been unearthed in western Russia, near its border with Ukraine, and elsewhere across Europe, Asia, and Australia, suggesting that canine domestication was a widespread phenomenon. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement
Other pets came later. Sheep and goats were first domesticated roughly 11,000 years ago, while cats became pets around 7000 B.C. with the advent of agriculture. (As people collected and stored grain, it would attract mice, which would then attract cats.) Around the same time, people started keeping cattle for consumption purposes. Several thousand years later, around 4000 B.C., as trade routes developed, humans began using oxen, donkeys, and camels to transport goods. Horses were eventually domesticated for both riding and carrying goods, but scholars differ on which purpose came first.
How did dogs get domesticated in the first place? The first ones were basically just tame wolves. Some researchers believe wolves were first attracted by the garbage produced by early human settlements. Those canines brave enough to approach humans, yet not so aggressive as to attack, got fed. Eventually, they no longer needed the strong jaws and sharp teeth of their feral counterparts. Their noses got smaller, too. (Dogs characteristics can change a lot in only a few generations.) After this initial process of “self-domestication,” humans started breeding dogs to help with hunting, herding, standing guard, and carrying stuff. Humans also deliberately bred dogs to be more adorable. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement
Scientists have also used DNA evidence to estimate the origin of domesticated dogs. The so-called “molecular clock” theory posits that if you know the speed at which DNA mutates, you can develop a chronology for doggie evolution. Say you know when wolves and coyotes separated and became different species, and you know what their genomes currently look like. You can then determine how long it took for those genetic changes to occur. Based on this methodology, dogs as a species are estimated to be 15,000 to 20,000 years old. But critics argue that gene substitution is not a constant process—it speeds up, then slows down—making the estimates rough at best.
Other canine genetics experts think that Larson’s barking up the wrong tree. “I’m somewhat underwhelmed, since it’s based on a single specimen,” says Bob Wayne from the University of California, Los Angeles. He buys that there’s a deep genetic division between modern dogs. But, it’s still possible that dogs were domesticated just once, creating a large, widespread, interbreeding population that only later resolved into two distinct lineages.
This is a bold story for Larson to endorse, not least because he himself has come down hard on other papers suggesting that cows, sheep, or other species were domesticated twice. “Any claims for more than one need to be substantially backed up by a lot of evidence,” he says. “Pigs were clearly domesticated in Anatolia and in East Asia. Everything else is once.” Well, except maybe dogs.
Today, dogs are such familiar parts of our lives—our reputed best friends and subject of many a meme—that it’s easy to take them, and what they represent, for granted. Dogs were the first domesticated animals, and their barks heralded the Anthropocene. We raised puppies well before we raised kittens or chickens; before we herded cows, goats, pigs, and sheep; before we planted rice, wheat, barley, and corn; before we remade the world.
The only way of doing so is to look into the past. Larson, who is fast-talking, eminently likable, and grounded in both archaeology and genetics, has been gathering fossils and collaborators in an attempt to yank the DNA out of as many dog and wolf fossils as he can. Those sequences will show exactly how the ancient canines relate to each other and to modern pooches. They’re the field’s best hope for getting firm answers to questions that have hounded them for decades.
“Everyone was like: You know what? If I’m completely wrong and I have to eat crow on this, I don’t give a shit. I just want to know.”
When did dogs first become pets?
There’s even more dispute about the timeline of the history of dogs and humans. What most scientists and canine geneticists agree on is that dogs were first tamed by hunter-gatherers between 9,000 and 34,000 years ago, which is such a wide timeframe that it’s hardly useful.
More recent studies suggest humans may have first domesticated dogs some 6,400-14,000 years ago when an initial wolf population split into East and West Eurasian wolves, which were domesticated independently of each other and gave birth to 2 distinct dog populations before going extinct.
This separate domestication of wolf groups supports the theory that there were 2 domestication incidents for dogs.
Dogs that stayed in East Eurasia may have been first tamed by Paleolithic humans in Southern China, while other dogs followed human tribes further west to European lands. Genetic studies have found that the mitochondrial genomes of all modern dogs are most closely related to the canids of Europe.
Studies have also reported that the dog’s domestication was heavily influenced by the dawn of agriculture. Evidence for this can be found in the fact that modern dogs, unlike wolves, have genes that allow them to breakdown starch. (1)
A Brief History of Dogs – How We Domesticated Dogs
Have you ever stopped to think about the history of your furry little canine pal? The dog, which is known in the scientific community as Canis lupus familiaris, is currently the most abundant carnivore on land. These creatures come in many shapes and sizes, and they can be found in countries all over the world. Dogs were also the first species to be tamed by man; the human-canine bond goes back 15,000 years. However, scientists are still debating about the history and evolution of dogs and the timeline of these animals’ domestication. But here’s what we know so far.
We know dogs evolved from wolves, and researchers and geneticists have extensively studied canines to try and pin down the exact moment in history when the first dog walked the Earth.
Archaeological evidence and DNA analysis make the Bonn-Oberkassel dog the first undisputed example of a dog. The remains, a right mandible (jaw), were discovered during basalt quarrying in Oberkassel, Germany in 1914. First mistakenly classified as a wolf, the Bonn-Oberkassel dog was buried with two humans around 14,220 years ago.
However, there are other theories that suggest dogs may in fact be older. For example, many experts agree that dogs started to separate from wolves starting around 16,000 years before present in Southeastern Asia. The progenitors of the dogs we know and love today may have first appeared in the regions of modern-day Nepal and Mongolia at a time when humans were still hunter-gatherers.
Additional evidence suggests that around 15,000 years ago, early dogs moved out of Southern and Central Asia and dispersed around the world, following humans as they migrated.
Hunting camps in Europe are also thought to be home to canines known as Paleolithic dogs. These canines first appeared some 12,000 years ago and had different morphological and genetic features than the wolves found in Europe at the time. In fact, a quantitative analysis of these canine fossils found that the dogs had skulls similar in shape to that of the Central Asian Shepherd Dog.
Overall, while the Bonn-Oberkassel dog is the first dog we can all agree was in fact a dog, it’s possible dogs are much older. But until we uncover more evidence, it will be difficult to know for sure exactly when dogs completely separated from their wolf ancestors.