DNA Pushes Dog Domestication Back 5,000 Years
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- Two studies in Nature used ancient DNA from bones at sites in Turkey, the UK, and Serbia to push back the genetic evidence for dog domestication by 5,000 years — to more than 15,000 years ago.
- The oldest specimen, 15,800 years old, was buried alongside humans in Anatolia, Turkey; isotopic analysis revealed the dog ate a fish-rich diet matching the local human population, evidence it was being deliberately fed.
- A 14,300-year-old jawbone from Gough's Cave, Somerset had holes deliberately carved into both sides — researchers suspect the pet may have been strung as ornamentation, or possibly eaten after death by the cave's cannibalistic inhabitants.
- At Pınarbaşı, Turkey, three puppies were found buried over a human's legs, mirroring the elaborate burial customs of that hunter-gatherer group and suggesting deep emotional bonds.
- Prof. Laurent Frantz of Ludwig Maximilian University said the close genetic ties between dogs at distant sites show they were traded between unrelated groups early on — likely for hunting efficiency or as predator alarms, not just companionship.
- Dr. Lachie Scarsbrook noted that by 15,000 years ago, dogs with very different ancestries already existed from Somerset to Siberia, raising the possibility domestication began during the last ice age — over 10,000 years before any other domesticated plant or animal.
- Dr. Anders Bergström of the University of East Anglia led a parallel study analyzing more than 200 ancient dog and wolf specimens; modern European breeds from bulldogs to labradors share significant ancestry with these ice-age dogs.
Why it matters: This rewrites the timeline of humanity's first domesticated animal, pre-dating agriculture and every other domestic species by more than 10,000 years. Because modern European breeds trace their ancestry to these ice-age dogs, the bulldog-to-labrador genetic line is nearly as old as settled civilization — and researchers can now finally separate true dogs from small wolves using whole genomes rather than bone measurements.
