According to new research, the discovery of the oldest dog DNA indicates that dogs have been “man’s best friend” for around 16,000 years, 5,000 years earlier than previously thought.
Since humans first domesticated dogs, the small canine friends have been our loyal companions, although it is unclear exactly when, where, and why it happened.
However, newly discovered dog DNA at the Pinarbasi rock shelter site in Turkey has identified the earliest known dog dating from around 15,800 years ago.
The new discovery
According to researchers, this dog is around 5,000 years older than the last evidence found, which was dated 10,900 years ago.
According to the dating of the Pinarbasi dog as well as others found at various locations in Europe, dogs were already extensively distributed and an essential element of human society millennia before the rise of agriculture.
According to the DNA data, dogs may have existed in diverse parts of western Eurasia by 18,000 years ago and were already genetically distinct from wolves.
“We putatively predict that dog and wolf populations diverged a lot earlier, likely before the last glacial maximum (of the Ice Age), so before 24,000 years ago.”
“Although saying that, there is still a great degree of uncertainty,” said Postdoctoral Researcher at the Natural History Museum and co-first author of the study Dr. William Marsh.
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Man’s best friend even in the afterlife
According to the researchers, the Pinarbasi dog demonstrated the importance of dogs to the hunter-gatherers who took care of them, stating that dogs were buried in a manner like humans and were buried next to them.
“The archaeology makes clear that these dogs were close companions of humans, isotope analysis showing the dogs ate fish, a major element of the human diet and, like humans, were carefully buried in the rock shelter near human burial, thereby receiving ritualised treatment analogous to the humans,” said University of Liverpool Professor Doug Baird.
“Dogs have been by our side as humans underwent major lifestyle transitions and complex societies emerged,” University of East Anglia in England Anders Bergstrom stated.
“I think it’s also interesting that, unlike most other domesticated animals, dogs do not always have very clearly defined roles or purposes for humans. Perhaps their primary role is often just to provide companionship.”
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