Investigating possible Palaeolithic domestication of dogs through geometric morphometric analysis of fossil remains with a special focus on dental material

通过对化石遗骸进行几何形态测量分析，特别关注牙科材料，研究旧石器时代对狗的可能驯化

• 批准号: 399477213
• 负责人: Dr. Catherine Bauer
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Arbeitsgruppe Biogeologie
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Research Grants
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 德国
• 起止时间: 2017-12-31 至 2023-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/399477213?language=en
• 关键词: Investigating; possible; Palaeolithic; domestication; dogs

The question when and where dogs were domesticated is hotly debated since dog-like canid fossils were discovered in archaeological sites in central and western Europe and southern Siberia. It has been suggested that these fossils represent the very first domestication of dogs around 30,000 years ago. Some authors argue that this domestication is the origin of all modern dogs, with possible admixture of later dog-breeds, probably from Asia. Others suggest that the first domestic dogs went extinct and are not related to modern dogs. The debate continues, because both genetic and morphological studies so far give ambiguous results. This is due to the large variation in modern dog breeds, as well as the fact that the earliest domesticated dogs or "incipient dogs" are expected to still be close to their contemporaneous wolves in morphology and genome. So far, few studies have applied state-of-the-art geometric morphometric methods to describe the morphology of the Palaeolithic specimens. This project will apply the full range of these methods to describe the morphology of the Palaeolithic specimens in comparison with contemporaneous wolves, as well as more modern to recent dogs and wolves. This way the morphological variation and differences can be quantified, and ideally interpreted in terms of trends and purposes of these changes, whether due to domestication or not. Particular attention will be given to dental remains, because these are the most common in the fossil record and teeth have shown to be very well suited to differentiate between similar (sub-) species. The analyses will be based on micro-computer tomography scans of >100 specimens. Access is already ensured for Palaeolithic specimens from Předmostí, Swabian Alb and Belgium, thus covering the geographic range of the most of the oldest currently known potential Palaeolithic dogs. The quantitative descriptions of phenotypical variations and similarities between fossil and recent specimens and groups go beyond simply distinguishing "dog" from "wolf", but aim to elucidate trends and patterns in dog domestication and/or Palaeolithic variations in wolves. The project will thus fill the current gap between archaeology and genetic studies on the early domestication of dogs.

自从在中欧、西欧和西伯利亚南部的考古遗址中发现了类似狗的犬科动物化石以来，狗在何时何地被驯化的问题一直备受争议。有人认为，这些化石代表了大约3万年前狗的第一次驯化。一些作者认为，这种驯化是所有现代狗的起源，可能是后来的狗品种的混合，可能来自亚洲。另一些人认为，第一批家养狗已经灭绝，与现代狗没有关系。争论还在继续，因为到目前为止，遗传学和形态学的研究都给出了模棱两可的结果。这是由于现代狗品种的巨大差异，以及最早的驯化狗或“早期狗”在形态和基因组上仍与同时代的狼接近。迄今为止，很少有研究应用最先进的几何形态计量学方法来描述旧石器时代标本的形态。该项目将应用这些方法的全部范围来描述旧石器时代标本的形态，并与同时代的狼进行比较，以及更现代的狗和狼。通过这种方式，形态学上的变异和差异可以被量化，并根据这些变化的趋势和目的进行理想的解释，无论是否由于驯化。将特别关注牙齿遗骸，因为它们是化石记录中最常见的，而且牙齿已被证明非常适合于区分相似（亚）物种。分析将基于100个样本的微型计算机断层扫描。来自Předmostí，斯瓦本Alb和比利时的旧石器时代标本已经得到了保证，从而涵盖了目前已知的最古老的可能的旧石器时代狗的地理范围。对化石和最近的标本和群体之间的表型变异和相似性的定量描述，不仅仅是区分“狗”和“狼”，而是旨在阐明狗驯化的趋势和模式，以及/或旧石器时代狼的变异。因此，该项目将填补目前在早期驯化狗的考古学和遗传学研究之间的空白。