奇怪的化石发现表明，早在28500年前狗就被驯化了

Ancient canine craniums, discovered at a 28,500-year-old fossil site in Czechia, may represent one of the earliest stages of animal husbandry. Or, they could just be wolves.

在捷克一处有28500年历史的化石遗址发现了古代犬类头盖骨，这可能是畜牧业发展的早期阶段之一。或者，他们可能只是狼。

Today, all modern dogs (Canis familiaris) are descendants of Eurasian grey wolves (C. lupus), which were likely the first animals humans domesticated.

今天，所有的现代狗都是欧亚灰狼(C. lupus)的后代，它们可能是人类最早驯养的动物。

Over millennia, a gradual series of changes is thought to have turned this wild animal into a tame docile pet, but how, why and when that process started is still fiercely debated.

几千年来，人们认为一系列的变化已经把这种野生动物变成了温顺的宠物，但这一过程是如何开始的、为什么开始的以及何时开始的仍然是激烈的争论。

In the fossil record, telling wolves apart from the first 'protodogs' is surprisingly tricky. Even today, some dogs and their wild counterparts can be hard to distinguish, so when it comes to comparing fossils of their ancestors, it can be like splitting hairs.

在化石记录中，把狼和第一批“原始狗”区分开来是非常棘手的。即使在今天，一些狗和它们的野生同类也很难区分，所以在比较它们祖先的化石时，它就像在吹毛求疵。

Comparing wolf-like fossils from the same site to the 'protodog' craniums, researchers found notable differences in their chompers. Unlike the Pleistocene wolf, the authors say these suspected early dog teeth had larger scars from wear and tear, indicating a diet of hard, brittle foods, like bones, as opposed to more fleshy foods, like mammoth.

研究人员将同一地点的狼类化石与“原犬类”头盖骨进行了比较，发现它们的咀嚼物存在显著差异。与更新世的狼不同的是，作者说这些被怀疑是早期狗的牙齿上有更大的磨损和撕裂的疤痕，这表明狗的饮食是硬而脆的食物，比如骨头，而不是像猛犸象这样的多肉食物。

"This would be consistent with the notion that canids beginning to co-habitate within or along the edges of human encampments consumed less desirable food items, including bone, discarded or fed to them by humans," the authors write.

作者写道：“这与犬科动物开始在人类营地内、或沿着营地边缘共同居住的观点是一致的，它们食用了不太理想的食物，包括被人类丢弃或喂养的骨头。”。

Other modern studies certainly suggest dogs have a higher rate of tooth fracture compared to wolves, although others have disputed that correlation.

其他现代研究当然表明，狗的牙齿骨折率比狼高，尽管其他人对此有争议。

At this particular fossil site in Czechia, known as Predmostí, previous studies have identified several distinct populations of canines, but there's still plenty of disagreement over whether any of these are Palaeolithic dogs from the time of the last ice age.

在捷克这个被称为predmosti的特殊化石地点，先前的研究已经确定了几种不同的犬科动物种群，但对于这些犬科动物是否是上一个冰河时期的旧石器时代的狗，人们仍有很多分歧。

Nevertheless, the new research suggests these two populations had suspiciously different diets during a time of permanent human site occupation, and this may indicate a behavioural shift in wolves towards domestication.

尽管如此，新的研究表明，这两个种群在人类居住地被永久占据期间的饮食习惯存在可疑的差异，这可能表明了狼向驯化的行为转变。

The authors say the results need to be verified by additional studies in central Europe, which is home to the strongest fossil record of early dogs, and also in other parts of the world where dog domestication is also known to have occurred.

作者说，这些结果需要在中欧和世界其他地方的进一步研究中得到验证。中欧是早期犬类化石记录最丰富的地方，世界其他地方也有犬类驯化的先例。

The study was published in the Journal of Archaeological Science.

这项研究发表在《考古科学杂志》上。