A new research has found that the friendship between humans and their best companion, dogs, began approximately 12,000 years ago — much before than previously thought. The study conducted by researchers at the University of Arizona and published in the journal Science Advances, earlier this week reveals that based on archaeological remains from Alaska, man and ancestors of today’s dogs, began forming a close relationship, about 2,000 years earlier than previously recorded in the Americas.
Led by Francois Lanoe, an assistant research professor at the School of Anthropology, the researchers unearthed a tibia, or lower-leg bone, of an adult canine in 2018 at a longstanding archaeological site in Alaska called Swan Point. Radiocarbon dating revealed that the dog was alive about 12,000 years ago, near the end of the Ice Age, and showed signs of being in close contact with humans.
Chemical analyses of the remains showed a significant contribution from salmon proteins — suggesting the dog had been regularly eating fish. Notably, canines in the area at the time did not eat fish. They hunted almost exclusively on land which led the researchers to posit the theory that dependence on humans may have contributed to the fish-rich diet.
“People like me who are interested in the people of the Americas are very interested in knowing if those first Americans came with dogs. Until you find those animals in archaeological sites, we can speculate about it, but it’s hard to prove one way or another. So, this is a significant contribution,” said Mr Lanoe.
“We now have evidence that canids and people had close relationships earlier than we knew they did in the Americas,” he added.
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But were they domesticated?
Another discovery of an 8,100-year-old canine jawbone at a nearby site in June 2023 showed similar signs. While both discoveries point out that humans and canines had forged a connection, scientists are of the view that it is still too early to say they had discovered the earliest domesticated dogs in the Americas.
As per Lanoe, the Swan Point and Hollembaek Hill specimens may be too old to be genetically related to other known, more recent dog populations
“Behaviorally, they seem to be like dogs, as they ate salmon provided by people,” Lanoe said, “but genetically, they’re not related to anything we know.”
As per the researchers, the study poses a critical question as to what exactly defines a dog. Is it their relationship with humans or their genetic traits? Whatever the result, the study opens new avenues for scientists to venture into and find when exactly the canines started living with us in our homes.
