Pies: The first dogs were self-domesticated wolves which, at least 12,000 years ago, became attracted to the first sites of pe

Evidence: 43 • authority: 88

Wolves, Archaeologists, and the Origin of Dogs. This chapter focuses on archaeological research and its role in explaining the transformation from wolf to dog, addressing why this topic is controversial: the tendency to identify wolf remains found in archaeological sites as evidence of either interlopers or human killing overshadows the alternate possibility of social bonding between humans and wolves. This probably has prevented appreciation of considerable early evidence of relationships between humans and wolves before the latter became sufficiently phenotypically distinct (“doglike”) to be recognized as domestic animals shaped by humans. Some archaeologists do not acknowledge the possib…

Evidence: 43 • authority: 72

The domestication of the dog was the process which resulted in the emergence of the domestic dog as a species (Canis familiaris). This included the dog's genetic divergence from the wolf, its domestication, and the emergence of the first dogs. Genetic studies suggest that all ancient and modern dogs share a common ancestry, descending from an ancient, now-extinct wolf population – or closely related wolf populations – which was distinct from the modern wolf lineage. The dog's similarity to the grey wolf is the result of substantial dog-into-wolf gene flow, with the modern grey wolf being the dog's nearest living relative. An extinct Late Pleistocene wolf may have been the ancestor of the do…

Evidence: 36 • authority: 72

Abel Tasman National Park is a national park at the north end of New Zealand's South Island. It covers 237.1 km2 (91.5 sq mi) of land between Golden Bay / Mohua and Tasman Bay / Te Tai-o-Aorere, making it the smallest of New Zealand's national parks. Despite this, the park is one of the most visited, partially due to the popularity of the Abel Tasman Coast Track which spans 60 km (37 mi) along the eastern and northern coastal areas of the park. The area of the park has seen human interaction for approximately 700 years, with evidence of habitation dating back to early Māori iwi such as Waitaha and Rapuwai during the early periods of Māori habitation in New Zealand. Following the arrival of…

Evidence: 36 • authority: 72

The Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc Cave (French: Grotte Chauvet-Pont d'Arc [ɡʁɔt ʃovɛ pɔ̃ daʁk]) in the Ardèche department of southeastern France is a cave that contains some of the best-preserved figurative cave paintings in the world, as well as other evidence of Upper Paleolithic life. It is located near the commune of Vallon-Pont-d'Arc on a limestone cliff above the former bed of the river Ardèche, in the Gorges de l'Ardèche. Rediscovered on 18 December 1994, it is considered one of the most important prehistoric art sites, and on 22 June 2014 the UN's cultural agency UNESCO granted it World Heritage status. The cave was first explored by a group of three speleologists: Eliette Brunel-Deschamps, Ch…

Evidence: 29 • authority: 92

Population genomics reveals an ancient origin of heartworms in canids.. Heartworms (Dirofilaria immitis) are parasitic nematodes that cause significant cardiopulmonary-associated morbidity and mortality in canids worldwide. The global spread of heartworms is believed to have occurred alongside the dispersal of modern domesticated dogs over the past few hundred years. However, this conclusion has been based on limited sampling, both geographically and numerically. To test this theory more rigorously, we analyse the whole genomes of 127 adult heartworm specimens collected from mammalian carnivore hosts across Australia, the USA, Central America, Europe, and Asia. Here we show distinct genetic…

Evidence: 29 • authority: 72

The Goyet Caves (French: Grottes de Goyet) are a series of connected caves located in Belgium in a limestone cliff about 15 m (50 ft) above the river Samson near the village of Mozet in the Gesves municipality of the Namur province. The site is a significant locality of regional Neanderthal and European early modern human occupation, as thousands of fossils and artifacts were discovered that are all attributed to a long and contiguous stratigraphic sequence from 120,000 years ago, the Middle Paleolithic to less than 5,000 years ago, the late Neolithic. A robust sequence of sediments was identified during extensive excavations by geologist Edouard Dupont, who undertook the first probings as…

Evidence: 21 • authority: 92

Society's struggle with unwanted species: what centuries of history reveal about species bounty programs.. Species bounty programs, much like bounty hunters charged to bring fugitives to justice, enlist the public to locate and remove unwanted species through financial incentives. With the goal of reducing population sizes, these programs address perceived ecological and economic damage caused by target species. In this study, we provide the first global assessment of species bounty programs, drawing on evidence from both historical and contemporary efforts across diverse regions and cultural contexts over the past eight centuries. We uncovered a long history of bounty programs involving at…

Evidence: 21 • authority: 72

This timeline of prehistory outlines selected developments in human prehistory from approximately 320,000 years ago to around 3200 BC. It begins near the age of some of the earliest known fossils attributed to Homo sapiens, discovered at Jebel Irhoud in present-day Morocco, and covers developments in human migration, technology, subsistence, art and settlement through the Paleolithic and early Holocene. For earlier stages of human evolution, see the Timeline of human evolution. Prehistory generally refers to the period before written records, but its endpoint varies between regions. Writing emerged in Mesopotamia by approximately 3200 BC, while written records appeared at different times el…

Evidence: 21 • authority: 88

The History of Human Habitation. Charles Garnier’s exhibition L’Histoire de l’habitation humaine , designed for the 1889 Exposition Universelle in Paris, included reconstructions of Greek, Roman and, most originally, a Gallo-Roman house that represented Classical antiquity. The accounts of Garnier’s lost houses offer a means to explore the ways in which the physical resurrection of the domestic past became a powerful means of literal and metaphorical place-making for visitors to exhibitions in Britain and France throughout the nineteenth century. They provide an opportunity to articulate more closely the changing perceptions in European culture. These transpired in both the roles of these r…

Evidence: — • authority: 38