Open Thread - Thurs 11 Apr 2024 - Domesticated Foxes!
Submitted by Sima on Thu, 04/11/2024 - 5:00am
Domesticated Foxes!
A couple days ago an article appeared on the BBC website about archaeological finds from South America which showed an extinct species of fox buried with human remains. Cool! But the article was very misleading, in that it seems to imply that foxes were domesticated before dogs. Here's the lead: 'Our ancestors may have kept foxes as pets long before domestic dogs came on the scene.'
Another article in the Daily Mail implies the same thing, that early man's 'best friend was the fox'. The problem is neither article states, at least in the headline, where 'early' man, or 'our ancestors' were from and how old 'early' is. The burial is from 1500 years ago. Dogs were domesticated tens of thousands, if not more, years before that. Of course, in that region of South America (Patagonia), foxes seem to have been domesticated before the arrival (to that area) of domesticated dogs, but, neither article says that.
An image of the extinct fox, from the New York Times.
