Dogs became man’s best friend far earlier than thought, scientists find 7 days ago Share Save Add as preferred on Google Pallab Ghosh Science Correspondent A fragment of a jawbone found deep underground in a cave in Somerset has rewritten the story of when and how dogs became our best friends。
DNA analysis shows the jaw belonged to one of the earliest known domesticated dogs and that people lived closely with them in Britain 15,000 years ago, thousands of years before farm animals were domesticated or cats padded into our homes。
The discovery pushes back the time that the first dogs evolved from their wolf ancestors by around 5,000 years。
It also suggests that the friendship between the very first dogs and stone age humans was there almost from the very start, according to Dr William Marsh of the Natural History Museum。
“It shows that by 15,000 years ago dogs and humans already had an incredibly tight, close relationship – and this tiny jawbone, which seems like such a small thing, has helped to unlock the whole human story of how that partnership began。
After hundreds of generations of human breeding, the dogs that emerged had shorter muzzles, smaller teeth and an enormous range of sizes, from lapdogs to hulking guardians。
来源：BBC Science