Overview
- Two peer-reviewed Nature studies analyzed 216 ancient canid remains with whole-genome methods and comparisons to over 1,000 dog genomes, identifying the earliest confirmed dogs dated roughly 14,000 to 16,000 years ago across western Eurasia.
- Key specimens include a 15,800-year-old dog from Pınarbaşı in Türkiye, a 14,200-year-old dog from Kesslerloch in Switzerland, and a 14,300-year-old jaw from Gough’s Cave in England, with genetics linking these Ice Age dogs to ancestors of modern European and Middle Eastern lineages.
- Chemical signatures in bone collagen show some dogs ate the same foods as nearby people, including fish at Pınarbaşı, which suggests humans were feeding them rather than the animals foraging on their own.
- Archaeological signs of care and ritual—such as decorative perforations on a dog’s skull and dogs buried with or atop humans—indicate social and emotional ties in several Late Upper Palaeolithic communities.
- When Neolithic farmers moved into Europe about 9,000 years ago, they brought dogs whose arrival replaced roughly half of earlier European dog ancestry, yet older lineages persisted, underscoring both change and continuity in canine histories.