Best evidence yet that dogs were our ancient hunting companions

[welsh]

Article in Science re archeological study of Japanese graves. Most people would say it's just obvious that we'va always hunted with dogs, but science is about proving stuff.

http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/...ncient-hunting

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[Snowwalker]

The companion dog or hunting dog has always been said to have evolved from wolves, but the counter argument is that no wolf species is well suited to be domesticated. In books or documentaries they show animals that look like grey wolves. I would have to say that greys are the last canines one would try to "tame". "Dogs" as companions do not seem to appear till after neanderthal man had left Africa, and modern man left Africa traveling with ....what else but dogs. African hunting dogs are easily domesticated, and if an animal leaves humans to live with it's wild kin their offspring will still decide to live with humans. African wild dogs( and their kind that live with humans) display more dog like behavior then a wolf or coyote has ever. The only reason wolf dog hybrids display any dog like behavior is because "WE" put the dog into the wolf, not because the wolf has any real dog traits.

So I guess in short you could say I think the wolf( and they would have been grey wolves) to Domestic dog theory is just a big pile of lawn bomb. I have no doubt that grey wolves may have been scavengers around human camps, but they were more likely to attack people then be trading their skills for scraps of food. If you hunted with wolves they would be making it VERY clear you got what was left, not waiting for you to throw them a old bone.

[welsh]

I would have to say that greys are the last canines one would try to "tame".

To be clear, this evidence is from 9,000 years ago, which is at least 5,000 years beyond the domestication of the dog.

It's quite true that wolves are not exactly the wild canid you would choose to "tame," but this is not how science now believes the dog was domesticated. It is believed that the dog essentially domesticated itself, i.e. that dogs and wolves separated when the forebears of the dog started hanging around human camps, scavenging. Selective pressure for docility and fearlessness then created the dog as we know it.