Man's best friend – mammoth's worst enemy? A speculative essay on the role of dogs in Paleoindian colonization and megafaunal extinction

Abstract

Recent genetic studies indicate that the wolf ancestors of New World dogs were domesticated in East Asia, about 15,000 cal. bp. Although archaeological evidence of the earliest American dogs is very scarce, they probably accompanied the Paleoindians who crossed Beringia and occupied North America after 13,500 cal. bp. By providing humans with hunting assistance and transport capability, as well as an emergency food source, dogs may have facilitated the very rapid expansion of Paleoindians. As hunters or as disease carriers, dogs may also have played a role in megafaunal extinction.

Keywords:

• Dogs
• domestication
• genetics
• Paleoindians
• megafauna

Notes

Stuart J. Fiedel received his BA in Anthropology from Columbia University in 1973, and his PhD in Anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1979. He is author of Prehistory of the Americas (Cambridge University Press, 1987, revised 1992) as well as numerous articles on diverse topics including Paleoindian origins, radiocarbon dating, Neolithic Europe, migration theory, Pleistocene and Holocene climate change, Algonquian languages, and residue analysis. He currently supervised archaeological research projects and historic preservation studies as Senior Archaeologists for the Louis Berger Group in Washington, DC.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Stuart J Fiedel

Stuart J. Fiedel received his BA in Anthropology from Columbia University in 1973, and his PhD in Anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1979. He is author of Prehistory of the Americas (Cambridge University Press, 1987, revised 1992) as well as numerous articles on diverse topics including Paleoindian origins, radiocarbon dating, Neolithic Europe, migration theory, Pleistocene and Holocene climate change, Algonquian languages, and residue analysis. He currently supervised archaeological research projects and historic preservation studies as Senior Archaeologists for the Louis Berger Group in Washington, DC.