A 33,000 year old canine skull was recently found in the Altai mountains of Siberia. Anatomical examinations and DNA analysis has indicated that the animal the skull came from was more closely related to modern domestic dogs than to modern domestic wolves, suggesting that dogs may have been domesticated during the period that the animal lived in.
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| A modern domesticated dog |
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Themes:
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Science
is tentative. No conclusions have been
jumped to here regarding the earliest domestication of dogs. More research is essential.
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Science
is testable. The skull was measured and
its DNA analyzed to determine whether it was more dog- or wolf-like.
Wow 33,000 years, man has had a best friend for a long time. I think that repeatability is important too. if they find another similar skull it will be even more conclusive. this article says it was only around 10,000 years ago that dogs were domesticated http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/domestic-dog/
ReplyDeleteThis just really goes to prove the science is tentative theme from the Nature of Science list. As Lukas said, we thought that dogs were domesticated only ten thousand years ago. Now, with this skull, we can tell that dogs have been domesticated for a much longer time. It is also interesting to know that the skull was found in Siberia instead of the Middle East. Scientists have thought that domesticated dogs started in the Middle East for a while now. This goes to prove that there are always new things to learn out there!
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