http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2974168/Always-man-s-best-friend-Dogs-bred-wolves-helped-humans-Neanderthal-rivals-Europe-40-000-years-ago.html
14 March 2015
Always a man's best friend: Dogs bred from wolves helped humans take over from Neanderthal rivals in Europe 40,000 years ago
- Neanderthals were wiped out after ancient humans arrived from Africa
- Scientists disagree on why - but top anthropologist may have the answer
- Dr Pat Shipman said we paired up with wolves in symbiotic partnership
- Wolves cornered prey and humans made the kill, sharing meat afterwards
- Neanderthals were then 'no match' for humans' superior hunting tactics
It's thousands of years since mankind won dominance over nature, and we're still pretty proud.
But a top researcher says we've been giving ourselves too much credit - because we were helped by our oldest friends.
Humans paired up with dogs as early as 40,000 BC, it is claimed, giving us such an advantage in hunting that it prompted the wipeout of our Neanderthal rivals.
Man's best friend: An early cave painting in Libya of dogs chasing a deer in the Akakus Mountains. A new theory claims humans teamed up with the ancestors of domestic dogs far earlier than was first thought
Left behind: While early humans hunted with wolves, their Neanderthal rivals in Europe continued using primitive tools without any help, according to anthropologist Dr Pat Shipman (artist's impression)
The controversial theory has been put forward in a new book by leading anthropologist Pat Shipman of Pennsylvania State University.
She has challenged the common scientific view that wolves were only domesticated just over 10,000 years ago, after early humans had already asserted a strong foothold in Europe.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2974168/Always-man-s-best-friend-Dogs-bred-wolves-helped-humans-Neanderthal-rivals-Europe-40-000-years-ago.html#ixzz3UMqvc0Yd
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Modern humans with wolf-dogs ousting Neanderthals(2nd picture)
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5 comments:
I agree that there is no reason to preclude both groups from using "more docile" wolves. What I have noticed is that as the list of things that separates humans from neanderthals keeps getting winnowed down there is always some effort to ascribe some "specialness" that separated us from them. FIre, artistry, spoken language, abstract thought and now wolf domestication?
In all actuality I think the neanderthal genome just basically got sunk into modern humans. There was not grand difference or huge clash of cultures. Just wave after wave of outward migrating humans absorbing a smaller relictual Neanderthal group.
All of us that have European origins have Neanderthal DNA
https://genographic.nationalgeographic.com/neanderthal
"A team of scientists comparing the full genomes of the two species concluded that most Europeans and Asians have between 1 to 4 percent Neanderthal DNA. Indigenous sub-Saharan Africans have no Neanderthal DNA because their ancestors did not migrate through Eurasia."
"Some scientists have suggested modern humans outcompeted or outright killed the Neanderthals. But the new genetic evidence provides support for another theory: Perhaps our ancestors made love, not war, with their European cousins, and the Neanderthal lineage disappeared because it was absorbed into the much larger human population."
Diane and Dave..............I concur with both of your "takes" on the merging of humans an neanderthals..............nice to hear from both of you this morning!
I must admit, I have always really liked this theory, and the same value and survival advantages of those of us modern "dog people" are still very much in evidence to this day! Very few people keeping dogs get snuck up on and murdered, if you check out crime statistics.....But I also agree that eventual Neanderthal "disappearance" was most likely a combination of many things--cultural differences, direct competition and genocide in some instances, gradual interbreeding in others. We see this with more modern human cultures/races throughout history--the gradual disappearance of the 'San/Bushmen types over the whole of Africa by other races and cultures included both interbreeding and persecution/extermination. But perhaps Neanderthals had some cultural taboo that kept them from adopting/raising wolf cubs? I think that wolves certainly scavenged from both groups(a good point, by the way!), and I DO NOT subscribe, AT ALL to the notion that wolves/dogs "domesticated themselves"--though they certainly helped start the process simply by being more readily available, and SLIGHTLY tamer by association, and maybe the Cros(Cro-Magnons) developed the tradition of raising and bonding with wolves that the Neanderthals never quite grasped. Maybe. Anyway, I have already ordered a copy of the book! Can't wait to read it!.....L.B.
L.B. , Duane and Dave............we all seem to instinctively come out similarly on this one,,,,,,,,,interbreeding, larger versus smaller Group absorbtion, some war and strife,...........I will pick up a copy of THE INVADERS as well---thanks guys for your thoughts
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