Scientists discovered evidence that North Americans tried to tame or domesticate canines 12,000 years ago.
Analyzing biomarkers in a canine fossil found at an early human campsite revealed a significant signature for salmon. Since canines didn’t pursue fish as their primary prey, the preponderance of isotopes in the canine bone signaling salmon presence suggests that humans fed the canine fish.
This finding pushes back attempts to either tame or domesticate canines in North America about 2,000 years from previous estimates, according to a report in Science Advances.
What Makes a Dog a Dog?
The study essentially provides biological evidence that meshes with the archeological. The presence of tools associated with fishing at the camp, as well as the canine bones nearby heavily infers human interaction between the humans and canines.
“I think we can tell that the animals had good relationships with people,” says François Lanoë, a university of Arizona anthropologist and an author of the study. Evidence that humans controlled at least some of the animals’ diet bolsters that claim.
However, the research team is loathe to call the bone they examined a remnant of a dog. They are also hesitant to label that animal “domesticated.”
The first point raises an existential issue almost as profound as Descartes’ “I think, therefore I am,” or Hamlet’s “To be or not to be?” It is: “What is a dog?” says Ben Potter, an archaeologist with the University of Alaska Fairbanks and an author of the study. Does specific genetics make a creature a dog? The shape of its body and bones (what scientists call morphology)? Or is it behavior?
“There’s a lot of debate and not so much data on the origins of dogs and the nature of the domestication process,” says Potter.
Read More: Dogs and Cognition: How Do We Know If Dogs Have a Sense of Time?
The Path to Domestication
Based on all three of those criteria, the canine fossil they examined can’t conclusively be considered from a dog. Its genetics differ enough from contemporary canines to rule out that categorization. The shape of its bones do much the same. And behavior is tricky. The scientists know that the dog hung out near humans and was almost certainly fed by them. But again, there is a difference between human and animal proximity, being tamed, and being fully domesticated.
Transforming a wild animal — whether wolf, coyote, or other canine species — into one that could be considered domesticated “is a process, not an event,” says Lanoë. Potter agrees that such a transformation doesn’t just happen in a single moment. The gradual genetic, physical, and behavioral changes from, say, an ancient wolf species to a contemporary dog one, occur over time and across a continuum of characteristics.
What the researchers can say with a high degree of certainty is that humans and canines were participating in this shift 12,000 years ago in Alaska. They just can’t definitively pinpoint at exactly what stage.
Read More: How Do Dogs Know How to Support Someone with a Disability?
Establishing a Tribal Tradition
The study also has significant anthropological implications for Native Americans from the east central Alaskan study area. Evelynn Combs, a member of the Healy Lake tribe in that area’s Tanana Valley, dug sites as a child, and has known Lanoë, Potter, and other archeologists since she was a teen.
Now an archaeologist herself, Combs, who works for the tribe’s cultural preservation office, says that her tribe has long considered dogs as mystic companions. This study shows just how far back this tribal tradition stretches.
“I really love that we can look at the record and see that thousands of years ago, we still had our companions,” Combs said in a press release.
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Before joining Discover Magazine, Paul Smaglik spent over 20 years as a science journalist, specializing in U.S. life science policy and global scientific career issues. He began his career in newspapers, but switched to scientific magazines. His work has appeared in publications including Science News, Science, Nature, and Scientific American.
