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发现了类似狗的犬科动物化石以来，狗被驯养的时间和地点的问题一直备受争议。有人认为，这些化石代表着大约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，可能混杂了后来的狗品种，可能来自亚洲。其他人则认为，最早的家犬已经灭绝，与现代狗没有血缘关系。争论仍在继续，因为到目前为止，遗传和形态研究都给出了模棱两可的结果。这是因为现代犬种的差异很大，以及最早的驯养狗或“早期狗”预计在形态和基因组上仍与同时代的狼接近。到目前为止，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。这个项目将应用所有这些方法来描述旧石器时代标本的形态，并与同时代的狼以及更现代的狗和狼进行比较。这样，无论是否由于驯化，形态的变化和差异都可以被量化，并根据这些变化的趋势和目的进行理想的解释。将特别注意牙齿遗骸，因为它们是化石记录中最常见的，牙齿已经被证明非常适合于区分相似的(亚)物种。分析将基于对&gt；100个样本的微型计算机断层扫描。已经确保了来自Předmorí、Swabian Alb和比利时的旧石器时代标本的访问，从而覆盖了目前已知的大多数最古老的潜在旧石器时代狗的地理范围。对化石和现代标本和类群之间表型差异和相似性的定量描述不仅仅是简单地区分“狗”和“狼”，而是旨在阐明狗驯化和/或旧石器时代狼变异的趋势和模式。因此，该项目将填补目前考古学和遗传研究之间关于狗的早期驯化的空白。