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.

由于在中部，西欧和西伯利亚南部发现了狗状的化石，因此在何时何地进行了何时和地点驯化狗。有人提出，这些化石代表了大约30，000年前的狗的第一个驯化。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，可能来自亚洲。其他人则建议第一只家犬灭绝，与现代狗无关。辩论继续进行，因为迄今为止的遗传学和形态学研究都带来了模棱两可的结果。这是由于现代狗品种的差异很大，以及最早的驯养犬或“初期狗”的事实预计仍将与其形态学和基因组中的当代狼接近。到目前为止，很少有研究应用最先进的几何形态学方法来描述古石标本的形态。与当代狼相比，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，以及对最近的狗和狼的现代形态。这样，无论是否归因于驯化，都可以量化形态变化和差异，并以这些变化的趋势和目的进行理想解释。将特别注意牙科遗体，因为这些是化石记录中最常见的，并且牙齿已证明非常适合区分相似的（亚）物种。分析将基于微型计算机层析成像扫描> 100种。从普雷迪原产的旧石器时代，斯瓦比亚Alb和比利时的旧石器时代已经确保了通道，从而涵盖了当前最古老的潜在旧石器时代狗的地理范围。化石与最近的标本和组之间表型变化以及相似性的定量描述不仅仅是将“狗”与“狼”区分开，但旨在阐明狼的狗驯化和/或古石变异的趋势和模式。因此，该项目将填补有关狗早期驯化的考古学和遗传研究之间的当前差距。