At the end of the Pleistocene, bands of wandering hunter-gatherers domesticated scavenging wolves, setting the stage for the birth of the tail-wagging, puppy-eyed canids we know and love today. I arranged it.
But dogs weren't the only ancient canine companions. Archaeologists have found evidence of foxes living in early communities across South America. It contains the nearly complete skeleton of an extinct fox discovered in northwestern Patagonia.
A team of researchers recently examined fox bones unearthed among the remains of dozens of hunter-gatherers. The team's findings, published Tuesday in the journal Royal Society Open Science, claim that the fox lived with the humans it was buried with.
“It appears to have been deliberately buried in this human cemetery,” said Ophelie Leblassure, a zooarchaeologist at the University of Oxford and author of the new study. “This is a practice that has been proposed for some time, but it was a pleasant surprise to actually find it.”
LeBrasseur said most archaeological remains of South American canids are usually isolated bones or teeth.
But in 1991, when archaeologists excavated the Cañada Seca burial site in central Argentina, they discovered an almost complete skeleton of a fox-like animal.
Unearthed by chance by local clay miners, the site also contained the bones of at least 24 people, as well as artifacts such as necklace beads, lip ornaments and spear points. Analysis of human bones at the site revealed that these people lived around 1,500 years ago and were nomadic.
The Cañada Seca canid skeleton was initially identified as a member of the genus Lycalopex, a group of still-living fox-like canids. But a closer look at the creature's teeth revealed that it was most likely the extinct D. avus, a medium-sized fox similar to a jackal and weighing as much as a small sheepdog. D. avus inhabited a wide range of grasslands in Patagonia from the late Ice Age until about 500 years ago. It was closely related to the Falkland Islands wolf, which was hunted to extinction in 1876.
LeBrasseur worked with biologist Cynthia Abona of Argentina's Institute of Evolution, Historical Ecology and the Environment and several other researchers to conclusively prove the skeleton's identity. They crushed samples of the animals' forearms and vertebrae and analyzed the ancient DNA fragments.
Although the ancient DNA was degraded, the research team was able to recreate part of the fox's genetic code. They compared it to the complete genomes of extant South American canids, including domestic dogs and the closely related maned wolf. This strengthened the claim that the animal buried at Cañada Seca was her D. avus.
The genetic research also helped disprove the theory that these ancient foxes were doomed by mating. Some scientists speculate that domestic dogs may have interbred with foxes when they arrived in Patagonia about 900 years ago. This diluted the fox gene pool, potentially creating hybrid hounds that could outcompete purebred foxes.
But Dr. Leblassure and his colleagues found that extinct foxes were likely too genetically different from domestic dogs to produce fertile offspring. Rather, increasing human influence on the local environment and changing climate may have played a major role in the species' extinction.
Another mystery was why the fox's body was buried in the Cañada Seca cemetery. Radiocarbon dates on the fox bones matched the age of human bones at the site. The similar preservation of the bones of the two species also suggests that they were buried around the same time.
In addition, the researchers examined the isotopic signatures preserved in the fox's teeth. While most wild canids eat almost exclusively meat, part of the fox's diet consisted of plant materials like corn. This reflects the amount of plant matter eaten by the humans buried at Cañada Seca.
This new discovery adds to the evidence that foxes and other native canids were an important part of ancient South American communities. In burial grounds in Peru and Argentina, bodies are adorned with ornaments made from fox-like carpeo teeth. Archaeological deposits in Chile reveal that other canids were also part of the local diet.
Aurora Grandal d'Anglado, a zooarchaeologist at the University of A Coruña in Spain, said: “Animals that eat like humans and are buried like humans are undoubtedly closely related to humans.'' It must be,” he says. study.
This relationship between foxes and ancient humans may have developed through systematic feeding. And Dr Grandal d'Anglad, who studies fox fossils found in Bronze Age deposits on the Iberian Peninsula, said it was plausible that foxes were used solely as companions.
Although the fox likely lived with the area's early hunter-gatherers, Dr. Leblassure said people would be hesitant to cuddle with it on the couch.
“I think this animal was probably domesticated, but it didn't feel like an actual pet,” she said.