早在28500年前狗就被馴化了

奇怪的化石發(fā)現(xiàn)表明，早在28500年前狗就被馴化了

Ancient canine craniums, discovered at a 28,500-year-old fossil site in Czechia, may represent one of the earliest stages of animal husbandry. Or, they could just be wolves.

在捷克一處有28500年歷史的化石遺址發(fā)現(xiàn)了古代犬類頭蓋骨，這可能是畜牧業(yè)發(fā)展的早期階段之一?；蛘?，他們可能只是狼。

Today, all modern dogs (Canis familiaris) are descendants of Eurasian grey wolves (C. lupus), which were likely the first animals humans domesticated.

今天，所有的現(xiàn)代狗都是歐亞灰狼(C. lupus)的后代，它們可能是人類最早馴養(yǎng)的動物。

Over millennia, a gradual series of changes is thought to have turned this wild animal into a tame docile pet, but how, why and when that process started is still fiercely debated.

幾千年來，人們認為一系列的變化已經(jīng)把這種野生動物變成了溫順的寵物，但這一過程是如何開始的、為什么開始的以及何時開始的仍然是激烈的爭論。

In the fossil record, telling wolves apart from the first 'protodogs' is surprisingly tricky. Even today, some dogs and their wild counterparts can be hard to distinguish, so when it comes to comparing fossils of their ancestors, it can be like splitting hairs.

在化石記錄中，把狼和第一批“原始狗”區(qū)分開來是非常棘手的。即使在今天，一些狗和它們的野生同類也很難區(qū)分，所以在比較它們祖先的化石時，它就像在吹毛求疵。

Comparing wolf-like fossils from the same site to the 'protodog' craniums, researchers found notable differences in their chompers. Unlike the Pleistocene wolf, the authors say these suspected early dog teeth had larger scars from wear and tear, indicating a diet of hard, brittle foods, like bones, as opposed to more fleshy foods, like mammoth.

研究人員將同一地點的狼類化石與“原犬類”頭蓋骨進行了比較，發(fā)現(xiàn)它們的咀嚼物存在顯著差異。與更新世的狼不同的是，作者說這些被懷疑是早期狗的牙齒上有更大的磨損和撕裂的疤痕，這表明狗的飲食是硬而脆的食物，比如骨頭，而不是像猛犸象這樣的多肉食物。

"This would be consistent with the notion that canids beginning to co-habitate within or along the edges of human encampments consumed less desirable food items, including bone, discarded or fed to them by humans," the authors write.

作者寫道：“這與犬科動物開始在人類營地內(nèi)、或沿著營地邊緣共同居住的觀點是一致的，它們食用了不太理想的食物，包括被人類丟棄或喂養(yǎng)的骨頭。”。

Other modern studies certainly suggest dogs have a higher rate of tooth fracture compared to wolves, although others have disputed that correlation.

其他現(xiàn)代研究當然表明，狗的牙齒骨折率比狼高，盡管其他人對此有爭議。

At this particular fossil site in Czechia, known as Predmostí, previous studies have identified several distinct populations of canines, but there's still plenty of disagreement over whether any of these are Palaeolithic dogs from the time of the last ice age.

在捷克這個被稱為predmosti的特殊化石地點，先前的研究已經(jīng)確定了幾種不同的犬科動物種群，但對于這些犬科動物是否是上一個冰河時期的舊石器時代的狗，人們?nèi)杂泻芏喾制纭?/p>

Nevertheless, the new research suggests these two populations had suspiciously different diets during a time of permanent human site occupation, and this may indicate a behavioural shift in wolves towards domestication.

盡管如此，新的研究表明，這兩個種群在人類居住地被永久占據(jù)期間的飲食習慣存在可疑的差異，這可能表明了狼向馴化的行為轉(zhuǎn)變。

The authors say the results need to be verified by additional studies in central Europe, which is home to the strongest fossil record of early dogs, and also in other parts of the world where dog domestication is also known to have occurred.

作者說，這些結(jié)果需要在中歐和世界其他地方的進一步研究中得到驗證。中歐是早期犬類化石記錄最豐富的地方，世界其他地方也有犬類馴化的先例。

The study was published in the Journal of Archaeological Science.

這項研究發(fā)表在《考古科學雜志》上。