Abstract
The date of historical domestication of dogs has been pushed back to between 15,000–30,000 years ago (estimates vary), a time when hunter-gatherer societies predominated in northern Europe and central Asia. We present insights from evolutionary behavioural ecology suggesting that wolves may have been “tricked” by their social evolution into contributing to the success of prehistoric human families or tribes. Four different wolves (one observed in great detail, as reported in recent book) that were raised by human families exhibited cooperative behaviours that protected their human “pack members.” Such hereditary altruistic behaviours may have been transferred by descent to the first dogs, which helped our ancestors hunt large animals and fight against other human tribes and wild carnivores. We hypothesize that the first need in domestication was for less aggressive wolf behaviour, within the wolf and human coevolution of the cooperative family or tribe that used wolves to increase their competitive fitness advantages.
Highlights
The domestication puzzle of the evolutionary origin of dogs is a fascinating but complex subject, and has produced much speculation (Koler-Matznick 2002)
Construction of his home was delayed for four years; so he reared the wolf in his family, and in their flat; probably a unique experience because rearing of wolves is common, but is usually effected in outdoor enclosures
If the domestication from the wolf is really linked to the altruism of the wolf, transmitted by heredity to the first dogs as we have suggested, this coevolution became essential in the harsh way of life of modern humans in the harsh environments of 15–30 thousand ybp
Summary
The domestication puzzle of the evolutionary origin of dogs is a fascinating but complex subject, and has produced much speculation (Koler-Matznick 2002). The age of this domestication has been increased more than threefold by recent discoveries of the first bones of dogs and ancient DNA of wolves, estimated up to 36,000 years ago (Ovodov et al 2001, Druzhkova et al 2013, Thalmann et al 2013, Skoglund et al 2015). This very old dating is still debated. This field of research is highly contentious (Grim 2015), but the main finding that the dog appeared a long time before Neolithic settlements is generally accepted
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