Ancient Bone Shows Dogs Were Our Partners Very Long Ago

A piece of jawbone found in a cave in England has changed what scientists know about dogs. This small bone proves that dogs lived with people in Britain 15,000 years ago. That is about 5,000 years earlier than experts thought. It shows dogs became our companions long before we kept animals like cows, sheep, or cats.

Scientists say the discovery proves the bond between dogs and humans is very old. Dr. William Marsh helped lead the study. He explained why the find matters. "It shows that by 15,000 years ago, dogs and humans already had an incredibly close relationship," he said. "This tiny jawbone has helped to unlock the story of how that partnership began."

The first dogs came from grey wolves. After the last Ice Age, some wolves began to stay near human camps. They ate leftover food. Over many generations, they slowly became tamer. People began to use these tamer animals to help with hunting, guarding, and tracking. They changed from wild predators into working partners.

Over hundreds of years, people bred dogs for different jobs. This breeding changed their bodies. Dogs developed shorter snouts and smaller teeth. They also came in many different sizes.

The 15,000-year-old jawbone was found by chance. Workers discovered it in the 1920s at Gough's Cave in England. For a long time, it sat in a museum drawer. People thought it was just a common bone.

Years later, Dr. Marsh was doing a project. He read an old paper that suggested the bone might be from a dog. He decided to run a genetic test. To his surprise, the test proved it was from a dog. This was the first clear proof that dogs lived in Britain thousands of years earlier than anyone knew.

At first, his friend Dr. Lachie Scarsbrook did not believe it. "William tells me: 'I found dog from the early Stone Age,' and I'm like, 'No you haven't,'" Dr. Scarsbrook said. "Then he shows us his results, and we're like, 'This guy might have actually found a dog that far back in time.'"

Once the jawbone was confirmed as a dog, its DNA became a key. Scientists used it to test other ancient bone samples from Western Europe and Turkey. They found that all the tested samples from the same ancient time were also dogs, not wolves.

This discovery solved a long mystery. For years, scientists had ancient samples with DNA that was somewhere between wolves and dogs. "Everything sat in no man's land because we couldn't tell where dogs truly began," Dr. Scarsbrook said. "Then this little jawbone turns up. It became the key to identifying other ancient dogs all across Europe."

The research was published in the journal Nature. More tests added interesting details.

Dr. Selina Brace was another scientist on the project. She explained the tests. They showed that the ancient dogs from different places were genetically similar. This means their ancestors must have traveled across Europe with their human owners. The tests also showed the dogs ate the same food as their human owners. In Turkey, they ate fish. In England, they ate meat and plants.

"We know from their diet that they either shared fish or the same meat and plant diet," Dr. Brace said. "So what this suggests is an incredibly close relationship." She added, "And isn't that amazing? 15,000 years ago, we see that level of companionship that we still see today."

Even before this find, there were some clues. Scientists had found small dog-like animals in Ice Age caves in Germany, Italy, and Switzerland. Some were buried next to humans. This hinted at a special bond. But the new research is the first to use detailed DNA testing. It proves the animal from Gough's Cave was definitely a dog. It also shows this dog was part of a very early group that had already spread across Western Europe and Asia.

Another study, also in Nature, looked at today's pet dogs. It shows that all modern dogs come from two ancient family lines. These ancient dog families had already spread across much of the northern world by the end of the Ice Age.

Dr. Anders Bergström led this other study. His team looked at the DNA of more than 200 ancient dog and wolf bones from Europe and the Near East. Their work showed that some of the earliest European dogs are a bit younger than the Gough's Cave dog. But they are clearly the same kind of dog as those found in Siberia and East Asia. All these dogs go back to a shared ancestor.

This finding is important. It means dogs were probably not first tamed separately in Europe. "Wherever dogs were first domesticated, they had already reached Europe by at least 14,000 years ago," Dr. Bergström said. "And they go on to contribute quite a lot to the dogs we see today."

These discoveries have amazed dog experts. Ciara Farrell, from the Royal Kennel Club, talked about the special bond. "As a dog lover, I think every dog lover knows that feeling where your dog is almost speaking to you," she said. "And that is a relationship that's developed over many, many years and it's unique to dogs and humans."