A female puppy that lived about 15,800 years ago in what is now Turkey is considered the oldest dog ever discovered. The remains, found at Pınarbaşı, are roughly 5,000 years older than those of the dog previously believed to hold that distinction.

Researchers uncovered part of the puppy’s skull at Pınarbaşı, a rocky shelter once used by ancient hunter-gatherers. Through examination and DNA analysis, they determined that the animal was only a few months old and likely resembled a small wolf. According to Laurent Frantz of Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, the findings were reported by Deutsche Welle.

Frantz is among the authors of a study examining the distribution of dogs across Europe and Asia during the Paleolithic Age, published in the journal Nature. He noted that the exact role dogs played in human life at the time remains unclear. However, even if early human-dog relationships differed from those today, he suggested that “children would have played with the puppies anyway.”

Humans and dogs buried together

Geneticist Anders Bergström of the University of East Anglia, a co-author of the Nature study and lead author of separate research on the genomic history of European dogs, agreed that dogs did not always have clearly defined roles in human societies.

“Perhaps their primary role was simply companionship,” he said.

Findings from the Pınarbaşı site offer valuable insight into human life during the last Ice Age, which ended about 10,000 years ago. William Marsh, a postdoctoral researcher at the ancient genetics laboratory at the Francis Crick Institute in London, pointed to evidence of a close relationship between humans and dogs at the site.

“At Pınarbaşı, we have both human and dog burials, with dogs buried next to humans,” Marsh said.

There is also evidence that hunter-gatherers at the site fed their dogs fish.

The lost connection between dogs and wolves

Dogs are believed to have been the first animals domesticated by humans, originating from wolves. However, their physical similarities make it difficult for scientists to clearly distinguish between the remains of the two species. Despite this, researchers estimate that dogs and wolves diverged at least 24,000 years ago.

Bergström and his colleagues have also identified what may be the oldest known dog in Europe, based on 14,200-year-old remains found at Kesslerloch in Switzerland.

At the same time, ancient European dogs appear to share common ancestry with dogs in Asia, suggesting a possible single domestication event. However, according to Bergström, key questions about when, where, and why dogs were domesticated remain largely unanswered.

Swedish geneticist Pontus Skoglund added that there is still a “genetic gap” between dogs and wolves. “The search for the missing link continues,” he said.