Learned something that wrinkled my brain.

[100Coogn]

I thought all dogs came from wolves.  They are what they are now, because of selective breeding.

Coogan

[PR3D4TOR]

You thought right.

[OldNitro]

Canine is a genus in the Canidae family and contains multiple extant species, such as wolves, dogs and coyotes. The domesticated dog is genetically only related to the grey wolf. The African wild dog is a separate species on its own branch of the Canidae family tree and is not related to either the grey wolf or dog. The Dingo is descended from domesticated dogs from East and Southeast Asia, which returned to a wild lifestyle when they escaped from fishermen who were stopping to get fresh water in Australia. Both the dingo and domestic dog are classified as subspecies of the gray wolf (Canis lupus).

Ah cool, never seen it mapped out like that before.

OK, accepting that, and that the Sharp stick was used as a tool, by the Hominid ancestors of Humans. Who were at that time a prey animal of canine species, and the big cats. We come back to the question, did our human ancestors have technology, (ie tools and weapons), before our human ancestors domesticated the dog?

Somehow, our human ancestors had to go from menu item, to master. My thinking says our tools and weapons allowed that to happen.

[PR3D4TOR]

It depends. Personally I don't think we or our immediate ancestors were ever prey species'. Of course we were preyed upon by other predators, we still are if we're not careful in the wild. However, I think we were always predators ourselves, unless we go so far back in time that we were nothing like what we are now. I don't think any upright-walking primate were ever a prey species.

[PR3D4TOR]

Even though we've sort of domesticated everything we need some of us are still predators...



Some better than others. 

[OldNitro]

It's known that the Hominids started as gatherers, seed eating herbivores, and were a prey species just like any other. Standing monkey must have been a tasty treat to a pack of wild African dogs. Then hominids developed into carrion eaters, increasing the level of protein and fat, which contributed to brain growth. Eventually hominids evolved into predators. putting them in direct competition with other predators for food sources.

[PR3D4TOR]

You'd have to go several million years back for that. I mean our ancestors had stone tools more than 3 million years ago. No one knows how long we've had sharp sticks and clubs.

[OldNitro]

So, which came first, domestication of the dog, or the use of tools, (technology)???
I'm guessing, that without the tools, the dogs/cats/birds would would have kept eating them.
The instinctive fear animals have for humans as predators, would never have been generated.

But it is an interesting and open question! 

[PR3D4TOR]

No. Modern humans domesticated wolves tens of thousand years ago, not millions. Humans have always had tools and weapons. The notion that humans once ran around naked and defenseless is just wrong. Prehistoric apes may have been prey, but not us.

[OldNitro]

Alright, so dogs were domesticated, tens of thousands of years ago, placing it in the Modern man category on the chart. But tools/weapons were being used millions of years before that, from the Australopithecus period. According to the chart.

OK then, I guess that the use of Technology, preceded the domestication of the dog.

(unless some new fossil or archeological evidence changes everything again)   

[FLOOB]

For a long time I didn't know that coyotes are a breed of wolf/dog. Coyotes, wolves, dogs can all breed with each other producing sexually viable offspring. Makes them all the same thing in my book.

[PR3D4TOR]

OK then, I guess that the use of Technology, preceded the domestication of the dog.

The use of technology precedes humanity itself.

[Zoney]

hehehe

[NatCigg]

in case you did not click on it...



 

[PR3D4TOR]