Ancient dog skull unearthed in Siberia

A very well-preserved 33,000 year old canine skull from a cave in the Siberian Altai mountains shows some of the earliest evidence of dog domestication ever found.

But the specimen raises doubts about early man's loyalty to his new best friend as times got tough.

The skull, from shortly before the peak of the last ice age, is unlike those of modern dogs or wolves.

Although the snout is similar in size to early, fully domesticated Greenland dogs from 1,000 years ago, its large teeth resemble those of 31,000 year-old wild European wolves.

This indicates a dog in the very early stages of domestication, says evolutionary biologist Dr Susan Crockford, one of the authors on the study.

"The wolves were not deliberately domesticated, the process of making a wolf into a dog was a natural process," explained Dr Crockford of Pacific Identifications, Canada.

First off, sorry for Day Late comment. Just saw the PING I got

*** If TSHTF, the first people to get over the social taboos of eating PUPPIES! and KITTIES! and other cuddly critters will be more likely to survive than others— especially in urban terrain. ***

I see where you're coming from but think about that for a moment. Like what is the most common animal 'in urban terrain'?

It's not puppies or kitties. It's ......... Rats. And then Pigeons in downtown areas.

Plus it doesn't take long for domestic Cats or Dogs to go feral and return to their Pride and Pack hunting roots of survival. So by the time 'urban areas' ran out of Rat Stew or Rat Flambé, those cuddly animals would be on their guard against humans.₍₁₎

And for the non urban areas I think we'd use the dogs as they were meant for when 1st domesticated, to help us hunt for food. Like a Pointer does when Bird Hunting. And the cats? I think we could use them to get the little birds and critters they're so good at getting right now. We'd just share the meal with them then.

Maybe I'm being too hopeful (or naive) to think that the educated among us would turn to eating our pets when there's other options first. And yes, I hold no hope for 'urban areas'. They're mostly feral now (google: Flash Mob Attacks).

(1) Way back when we had a Cat I happened to run into a 'pride' of 3 Cats that were dirty as heck and I just wanted to see if they were okay so I approached them. Too late, they were already Feral. The 'Boss Cat', a big Tom, was ready to attack. I slowly backed away.

ps: Thank you for your service. And I feel for your job situation. We have a friend who was an Army Lifer (E8, 1SGT) and had a heck of a time finding a meaningful (paying) job after he retired (27 yrs iirc). And his MOS was 18E.

Doggies, when they were first domesticated, might have been given a chance to help hunt but more likely they were used the same way the Iroquois used them ~ to eat meat, with themselves to be served later on in the winter.

The Iroquois grew vast fields of corn. They'd pull the ears off and prepare them for storage and later use ~ nothing out of the ordinary there.

Then, they'd let the deer in to eat the remaining ears, the downed ears, the stalks, and whatever else was in there ~ probably beans.

The deer would eat and eat and get fat.

Then the Iroquois would close their fences and bring on the village dogs. The Indians would kill deer for the dogs to supplement the deer the dogs themselves were killing.

The dogs would eat all the venison they could get (and you have to presume the Indians had already carved out haunches for smoke preservation the same as we might do a ham).

The dogs were then kept out of the village for the winter, but they'd stay nearby just in case someone had some garbage to toss them.

Eventually the smoked haunch would be eaten, the beans used up, and everything else would get in short supply and the Iroquois would begin letting a few dogs in for a special dinner!

They'll still leap unbidden up into the arms of a human they know. They were bred for food.

I had forgotten about the rats. They are not, I think, as common in my local city as in others. But, yes, I personally would have no trouble with rats, squirrels, or any other fur-bearing species if things get tough.

Thanks also for the reminder to keep my propane torch nozzle in the vehicle-based Oh-Chit-Kit along with the Coleman stove and so on. (The rucksack-based Holy-Chit-Kit has no room for such luxuries and contains only the means to start fires, but not to maintain them.)

Note: a cat preparing to attack stands very still while doing the arch-and-hiss, or the pre-jump butt-wiggle (that cat-lovers such as I find endearing when playing with string). Therefore, a perfect target.

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