Until now, paleoanthropologists considered that men domesticated dogs 16,000 years ago, but the discovery and subsequent analysis of the bones of a common ancestor of wolves and dogs that lived in Siberia 35,000 years ago suggests that probably the close relationship between humans and our friends the dogs began between 35,000 and 40,000 years ago. Says a study led by Pontus Skoglund, a scientist at Harvard Medical School and published in the journal Current Biology.
The debate about the time and conditions by which wolves approached Homo sapiens and gradually transformed into dogs is ancient. When and where these animals gave up their predatory instincts and adapted to live with people is a mystery.
We now know that dogs were probably domesticated much earlier than previously believed. Or it is also possible that a separation between two populations of wolves had occurred a little later and that one of the two had originated the current wolves, although this is considered more unlikely by experts, since it would have required would require that the other population be would have completely extinguished.
The study authors believe that wolf populations must have remained intact, without coming into contact with humans, for a long time. The investigation took shape after a small bone was found on the Taimyr peninsula in Siberia. When scientists analyzed its genome, they discovered that it was a 35,000-year-old wolf.
Furthermore, genetic analyzes showed that today’s Siberian huskies have a lot in common with this ancient Taimyr wolf. This implies that this animal lived a few thousand years after Neanderthals disappeared from Europe and modern humans began to populate Europe and Asia.
