A puppy that lived in Turkey 15,800 years ago is, for now, the oldest dog in the world

About them we say that they are the best friend we can have. Loyal, helpful, empathetic, affectionate, they occupy a very special place in the history of humanity and are the most common pet in our homes. And yet, we still don't know since when, where, or how dogs stopped being wolves to become inseparable companions. Now two new studies published in Nature get a little closer to solving this mystery.

In the first of the studies, the remains of a puppy found at a site in Turkey reveal that we have had close ties with these furry creatures for at least 15,000 years, 5,000 more than we previously thought and long before agriculture appeared. The hunter-gatherer groups that inhabited Eurasia at that time lived alongside them, cared for them, and fed them, at a time when resources were very scarce. And, very probably, they loved them, judging by how our ancestors buried them.

In the second study, the analysis of the genome of more than 200 ancient wolf and dog remains recovered from different sites in Eurasia shows that those groups of humans, genetically and culturally very different and geographically distant, exchanged canids: researchers have found many more genetic similarities between animals that lived more than 3,000 km apart than between the groups of humans with whom they lived.

These two studies provide the first solid scientific evidence that dogs already existed in the Paleolithic, before humans developed agriculture and domesticated plants and animals.  

“[Our results] imply that more than 15,000 years ago, dogs with different genetic lineages, despite being of the same species (Canis lupus familiaris) already existed throughout Eurasia, from Somerset in the United Kingdom to Siberia,” points out in a press release Lachie Scarsbrook, a researcher at the University of Oxford and co-author of one of the two studies. “This suggests that domestication occurred during the last glacial period, more than 10,000 years before the appearance of domestic plants or animals,” he adds.

They fed and cared for them

The archaeological remains found so far suggest that dogs diverged from wolves during the Paleolithic, more than 15,000 years ago. And remains compatible with dogs have been found in Europe dating back 14,000 years. The fact is that the DNA of these remains is so fragmented that until now it had been difficult to distinguish whether they were specimens of one species or another. For this reason, until now, the oldest genetic evidence of dogs dated back 10,900 years ago. This disparity between the archaeological record and genetic analysis made it impossible to ascertain when and how dogs had been domesticated.

Using advanced sequencing techniques, an international team of researchers have analyzed the DNA of bone remains of a dog puppy found at a site in Anatolia, Turkey, dating back 15,800 years. They have also studied remains from Gough's Cave in Somerset, UK, dating back 14,300 years, as well as other remains from two sites in Serbia.

The results show that dogs were found throughout the European continent 14,000 years ago. Isotope analysis of the remains from Turkey, moreover, has revealed that dogs had a diet rich in fish, like the humans with whom they lived. And they have found that the dietary patterns were very similar between canids and humans at the other sites, which suggests, say the authors, that our ancestors fed them intentionally, sharing the scarce resources they had with the dogs.

The remains from Turkey, moreover, have shed light on the close emotional bond that those groups of humans maintained with the animals. This is because they found bone remains of three dog puppies buried on the legs of a human, arranged in the same way as people were buried. The remains from the British cave, where it is known that the community that inhabited it practiced cannibalism, have holes on both sides of the jaw made intentionally. Probably, the researchers point out, humans ate their pets after they died.

They exchanged canids

In the second study, researchers expand knowledge about the origin of dog domestication by analyzing over 200 remains of canids and wolves found in Europe. The oldest specimen they analyze comes from Switzerland and is 14,200 years old. The results corroborate that it shared a genetic ancestor with other dogs from more distant regions, which, according to the authors of the work, evidences that specimens were traded or exchanged between human groups of very different cultures.

Why did humans care for them? It is not known for sure. There is evidence that they fed them at a time when resources were scarce and shared shelter with them. Perhaps they used them to improve hunting efficiency, or they were useful because they alerted them to the presence of predators and helped maintain the security of the caves. Who knows, what is clear is that a friendship began that still endures.