Ancient hunter - accumulator in South America may have keep fox as pet beforedomestic dogsarrived on the continent . Evidence for this unexpected alliance amount from a 1,500 - class - sometime burial web site in Patagonia , Argentina , where a human skeletal system appears to have been bury alongside a fox , suggest that the pair may have shared aspecial bondduring their lifetimes .
Originally learn in 1991 , the archeological land site of Cañada Seca contains the remains of at least 24 fellow member of a hunter - accumulator residential district . Within one of the burial pits , researchers describe the bones of an unknown canid , although the relationship between the animal and its human grave - mate remain uncertain until now .
To clear up the mystery , the authors of a new field conducted in - depth genetic , morphological , and isotopic analysis of the ancient bones . This enable them to reveal that the fox belonged to a now - nonextant coinage known asDusicyon avus -which roamed South America until around 500 years ago - and not a grey George Fox , as had previously been speculated .
More significantly , however , the results of the sketch have illuminated the social context of this peculiar multi - species inhumation . Previously , it had been unmanageable to interpret the meaning of this discovery since the human andfoxbones were “ blend ” , thus dedicate few clues as to whether or not the arrangement was careful or coincidental .
However , after study the carbon and nitrogen isotopes in the Charles James Fox bone , the field of study author were able to sustain that the animal survived on a human - similar dieting , consisting of substantially more botany and less meat than a crazy fox would typically consume . grant to the researchers , this determination is indicatory of “ taxonomic feeding ” , argue that the slyboots was probably “ a companion or a petfor the hunter - gatherer during the previous Holocene . ”
“ Its potent bond with human individual during its life would have been the main ingredient for its placement as a grave proficient after the death of its owner or the people with whom it interact , ” write the study source . Such a finish is further strengthened by previous radiocarbon geological dating of the animal ’s finger cymbals , which revealed that it was forget at around the same clip as the associated human .
Delving deeply into the fox ’s genome , the study author seek to determine the effort of this long - lost canine ’s defunctness . According to one supposition , the metal money may have disappeared as it breed with domestic dogs , create ahybrid lineagethat eventually became genetically imbibe into the pawl bloodline .
However , the genetic divergence betweenD. avusand mod hound turned out to be significant enough that the two would believably not have been able to produce viablehybridoffspring , thus reign this out as the principal number one wood of the fox ’s extinction . or else , the study authors hint that the animal ’s disappearance was belike due to a combining ofclimate changeand human tampering .
The study has been published in the journalRoyal Society Open Science .
