(CN) — As early ancestors of mankind moved out of Africa nearly 1.8 million years ago, Eurasian hunting dogs were migrating in, according to research published in Scientific Reports on Thursday describing canid remains found in Dmanisi, Georgia — an area known as the gateway between Europe and Asia.
Far-fetched from the domestic Fido of today, these early canids much more resembled the hyper-carnivorous wild dogs of modern Africa. Except they were bigger. The distinct teeth and jaw remains found suggest the juvenile specimen belonged to Canis (Xenocyon) lycaonoides and would have weighed around 66 pounds.
“It is difficult to say precisely what factors drove species dispersal in the past,” lead author Saverio Bartolini-Lucenti said in an email. “First factor I would say, environment. Second of course is prey availability. Consider then such open environments were suitable for the life of very large communities of herbivores.”
The canids likely hunted and ate zebra-like equids as well as horned wildebeest-like animals and other bovids.
“Interestingly, such environments were the same that allowed the dispersal of our ancestors, but in the opposite direction compared to the Eurasian hunting dog,” added Bartolini-Lucenti, a postdoctoral researcher in the Earth Science Department at the University of Florence.
Researchers identified the teeth and jaw remains as belonging to an Early Pleistocene-era Eurasian hunting dog, an animal believed to travel in packs and look out for its own.
"Much fossil evidence suggests that this species was a cooperative pack-hunter that, unlike other large-sized canids, was capable of social care toward kin and non-kin members of its group,” the authors wrote in the 10-page paper.
Other previously uncovered evidence of both early humans and early dogs displaying acts of altruism and helping others. The finding of one Homo erectus which had survived several years beyond the loss of its teeth, for examples, indicates that it may have had help chewing food.
Carnivores, including canids, are known to cooperate in hunting larger prey, protecting food from scavengers, and raising pups. Researchers have additionally documented a candid injured around 1.2 million years ago, which lived long enough for the wounds to heal — a feat considered unlikely if it lived as a lone wolf.
Rather than bonding around the fire, however, Homo erectus and the Eurasian hunting dog likely lived in fierce competition.
“Imagine an environment full of predators, large sized sabertoothed cat weighting around 200-300 kg, giant hyenas,” Bartolini-Lucenti said. “It was really dangerous to attempt stealing food for our ancestors from those carnivores. Eurasian hunting dogs would have been much easier to be scared off from their kills. I deem that was the most probable interaction between Homo and Canis (Xenocyon) at Dmanisi.”
The international research team also described finding remains from Canis borjgali, ancestor of the wolf Canis lupus, in Dmanisi last year. Bartolini-Lucenti said he will continue to study “the whole carnivore assemblage under different perspectives, taxonomically, ecologically, and in relation to Homo.”
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