Researcher believes domestic dogs explain the success of early modern humans

May 30, 2014 20:11 GMT  ·  By

According to researcher Pat Shipman with the Pennsylvania State University in the United States, chances are that the earliest domestic dogs did more than just play fetch with our ancestors.

Thus, this specialist believes that early dogs helped the first modern humans bring home the bacon. Crispy, juicy bacon taken right off one really unlucky mammoth's dorsal side, to be more precise.

Pat Shipman explains that, in recent years, archaeologists have uncovered several sites containing both the remains of many dead mammoths and dwellings made from the bones of such animals scattered all across Europe.

Of these sites, many contain the remains of hundreds of mammoths. Although the ancestors of modern humans and modern humans themselves first started hunting mammoths several hundred thousand years ago, such sites only became a common sight some 45,000 to 15,000 years ago.

At the time this happened, modern humans were not exactly what some would call gifted weapon-wise. Hence, it is unclear how it was that they managed to kill this many mammoths. The way Pat Shipman sees things, they probably got help from dogs.

This theory is backed up by evidence obtained by Mietje Germonpré with the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, who has found remains of large carnivores that were different to wolves in the proximity of these sites. It is these carnivores that are believed to have been the first domestic dogs.

“Dogs help hunters find prey faster and more often, and dogs also can surround a large animal and hold it in place by growling and charging while hunters move in. Both of these effects would increase hunting success,” Pat Shipman explains.

“Furthermore, large dogs like those identified by Germonpré either can help carry the prey home or, by guarding the carcass from other carnivores, can make it possible for the hunters to camp at the kill sites,” the Pennsylvania State University specialist adds.

Interestingly enough, other evidence in support of the theory that early modern humans worked together with domestic dogs or at least dog-like carnivores to bring down mammoths is the fact that wolves and foxes carcasses have also been found at these archaeological sites.

The Pennsylvania State University researcher believes that their presence in the area in such large numbers is due to run-ins between these predators and the canids that our ancestors were working with. By the looks of it, early domestic dogs were the ones that most often won such confrontations.

“Both dogs and wolves are very alert to the presence of other related carnivores – the canids – and they defend their territories and food fiercely,” Pat Shipman argues.

“If humans were working and living with domesticated dogs or even semi-domesticated wolves at these archaeological sites, we would expect to find the new focus on killing the wild wolves that we see there,” she adds.

If the Pennsylvania State University specialist's assumptions are true, this can only mean one thing: dogs must really be man's best friend, and they have managed to hold on to this status for thousands of years now.