“Revealed: The Surprising Self-Driven Evolution of Wolves into Dogs—Were They the Real Architects of Their Own Domestication?”
Did you ever wonder if dogs—those lovable furballs snuggled up on your couch—could have, in some alternate universe, pulled off a self-domestication heist right under our prehistoric ancestors’ noses? Well, buckle up! Fresh mathematical models suggest that our canine companions might indeed have taken the reigns of their own evolution, forging bonds with humans while scavenging for food at ancient settlements over 30,000 years ago. Imagine a scrappy wolf, eyeing leftover mammoth meat with a glimmer of cunning—an Aesop’s fable brought to life! The new theory flips the script on conventional wisdom, which often painted humans as the masterminds behind canine domestication. Instead, could our pets have engineered a clever strategy to ensure their survival? Dig into this intriguing narrative detailing the self-domestication of dogs and what it reveals about our shared history! LEARN MORE.
According to new mathematical models, dogs could have domesticated themselves via bonding with humans while scavenging for food at Paleolithic settlements starting around 30,000 years ago.
Paras Kaushal/UnsplashUnder the right conditions, wolves could have domesticated themselves into dogs over the course of about 8,000 years via bonding with Paleolithic humans.
For thousands of years, dogs have been man’s best friend. When humans still lived primarily in hunter-gatherer societies, dogs were among the first domesticated animals. And as the millennia passed, the relationship between man and dog has remained, in many ways, unchanged.
But there has long been debate in the scientific community about when and how, exactly, wolves were domesticated into dogs. Some have speculated that, much like today, humans aided in the process, selectively breeding wolves for tamer traits and other desired features. Humans needed wolves for the hunt, and in return supplied wolves with a portion of the meat, or so the theory goes.
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