HUMANS LIVE A DOG'S LIFE

A new theory claims that many human behaviours are a result of our long-standing relationship with dogs, and vice versa.

Dr Paul Tacon from the Australian Museum and Adelaide bio-archaeologist Dr Colin Pardoe put forward their ideas in yesterday's issue of the journal Nature Australia.

"We were asking the questions, 'What is a human?' and 'What is a dog?'," explained Dr Tacon.

"The answer was not straightforward and we found the two were intertwined."

Wolves were the first animals to be domesticated by humans — and the researchers believe this may have happened much earlier than previously thought.

Domestic dogs appear rather suddenly and widely in the geological record between 13,500 and 14,000 years ago. But the lack of evidence before then may be due to the lack of burial sites, said Dr Tacon.

It was only about that time that humans began settling down and farming — prior to that, most people led a nomadic existence, so burial sites were rare.

Other evidence points to earlier domestication, note the researchers. DNA analysis suggests a split between dogs and wolves over 100,000 years ago, and possibly as much as 135,000 years ago.

In addition, fossil canine skulls much smaller than those of most wolves have been found at archaeological sites in England along with human artefacts. These are estimated to be 190,000 to 130,000 years old.

"We need to take a fresh look at the differences between these wolf bones and the wild wolf populations to see if there are differences," suggested Dr Tacon.

In their paper, the researchers argue that an early relationship between humans and dogs directed the evolution of both species.

"Most studies have concentrated on the effects of human–canine cohabitation on dogs rather than the reverse," they write.

"But the effects on humans, on their psychology, hunting practices, territoriality and social behaviour, would also have been profound."

In fact, dogs may have chosen us rather than the other way around.

The early wolf may have hung around human camps for food scraps, the researchers speculate.

"Later, it simply moved in and made itself at home."

Both wolves and humans are social animals with complex communication signals, leading them to adopt each other's behaviour, say Tacon and Pardoe.

For example, humans may have adopted the practice of making symbol marks on rocks from the wolf behaviour of territorial marking. These symbol marks, which appeared between 40,000 and 50,000 years ago, are quite different to engravings and paintings, the researchers point out.

Another wolf-like behaviour is big-game pack hunting, which does not appear to have occurred among pre-Homo sapiens groups. It requires special powers of cooperation and negotiation in complex situations.

Researchers are still unsure whether the first people to come to Australia had dogs with them. Most Aboriginal people have led a nomadic existence, so there are very few burial sites in Australia.

Dingoes first appeared about 4,000 years ago, when they have been found to be purposefully buried. But there are dog figures in early rock art, and these are thought to represent thylacines.

"The thylacine figures are shown interacting with humans in a more domestic fashion," said Dr Tacon.

So is it true that that dog people are different to cat people?

"Cats were domesticated 4,000 years ago, but our relationship with the dog goes back much further in time," Dr Tacon said.

"Dogs and humans have similar social systems and are ideally suited towards living with each other." 

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