Scientists have identified a fragment of skull from a female puppy recovered at the Pınarbaşı rock shelter in present-day Turkey as the oldest-known dog, dating to roughly 15,800 years ago. That age makes this specimen nearly 5,000 years older than the previously recognized earliest dog. DNA sequencing and anatomical analysis indicate the animal was a few months old and would likely have looked like a small wolf, according to Laurent Frantz of Ludwig Maximilian University, a co-author on a Nature paper mapping Paleolithic dog finds across Europe and Asia.
Researchers caution that the precise roles dogs played in Ice Age human groups remain unclear. The human–dog relationship then was probably unlike modern pet ownership, but Frantz suggested puppies were still likely a source of play and familiar company for children.
A companion Nature study led by Anders Bergström of the University of East Anglia reconstructs the genomic history of European dogs. Bergström and colleagues argue that early dogs did not always serve fixed utilitarian roles and that companionship may often have been their primary function.
Excavations at Pınarbaşı revealed evidence of close human–dog connections: human and dog burials, dogs interred alongside people, and signs that hunter-gatherers fed fish to dogs, said William Marsh of the Francis Crick Institute. The site’s artifacts and remains shed light on daily life during the last Ice Age, which ended around 10,000 years ago.
Distinguishing early dogs from wolves is difficult because early domesticated dogs were genetically similar to gray wolves. Current estimates place the divergence between dog and wolf populations at least 24,000 years ago. Bergström’s team also identified what appears to be the oldest dog in Europe from remains dated to about 14,200 years ago at the Kesslerloch site in Switzerland.
Genetic links between ancient European and Asian dogs point to shared ancestry and lend some support to the idea of a single domestication episode, but the timing, location and motivations for domestication remain unresolved. Swedish geneticist Pontus Skoglund described a persistent ‘genetic abyss’ between modern wolves and dogs and said the search for a clear missing link in the domestication story continues.