World’s First Dog

Reported By Jennifer Viegas on 10/17/2008   the world’s first known dog was identified. A team of international scientists believe they have successfully discovered the earliest known dog. This pushes back the date, by 17,700 years, from the previous discovery, of what is now the second oldest, whose remains were found in Russia.

The newly discovered, oldest known canine, lived 31,700 years ago. It was large and toothy; subsisted on a “diet of horse, musk ox and reindeer”.

Its remains were found during an excavation at Goyet Cave in Belgium. Researchers believe this discovery suggests that “Aurignacian people of Europe from the Upper Paleolithic period first domesticated dogs”.