Ice Age hunters’ leftovers may have fueled dog domestication

Ancient people tamed wolves by feeding them surplus game, researchers suggest

dog on a leash

Saddled with more lean meat than they could safely consume, ancient northern Eurasian hunter-gatherers may have fed some of it to wolves in the first step toward dog domestication, researchers propose.

Richard Newstead/The Image Bank/Getty Images

Sometime between around 29,000 and 14,000 years ago, hunter-gatherers navigating northern Eurasia’s frigid landscapes turned wolves into dogs by feeding them lean-meat leftovers.