article_snippet: Humans paired up with dogs as early as 40,000 BC, it is claimed, giving we such an advantage in hunting that it prompted the wipeout of we Neanderthal rivals.
article_snippet: A new theory claims humans teamed up with the ancestors of domestic dogs far earlier than was first thought .
article_snippet: leading anthropologist Pat Shipman of Pennsylvania State University has challenged the common scientific view that wolves were only domesticated just over 10,000 years ago, after early humans had already asserted a strong foothold in Europe.
article_snippet: Instead, leading anthropologist Pat Shipman of Pennsylvania State University said, humans began taming and breeding wolves - leading to the pets we know today - soon after humans arrived on the continent from Africa up to 70,000 years ago.
article_snippet: Early wolf-dogs would have tracked and harassed animals like elk and bison and would have hounded Early wolf-dogs until Early wolf-dogs tired.
article_snippet: Then humans would have killed Early wolf-dogs with spears or bows and arrows. '
article_snippet: This meant Early wolf-dogs did not need to approach these large cornered animals to finish Early wolf-dogs off – often the most dangerous part of a hunt – while humans didn’t have to expend energy in tracking and wearing down prey.
article_snippet: Dogs would have done that. '
article_snippet: Dr Shipman's theory, shared in Dr Shipman book The Invaders: How Humans and Their Dogs Drove Neanderthals to Extinction, was partly inspired by early dog remains.
article_snippet: Dr Shipman examined 33,000-year-old fossils of dogs found in Siberia and Belgium, and looked at how the shapes of 33,000-year-old fossils of dogs found in Siberia and Belgium jaws and skulls were different from wild wolves.
article_snippet: Although 33,000-year-old fossils of dogs found in Siberia and Belgium were far more similar to wolves than the pets of today, there were clear signs of domestication, Dr Shipman said - including shorter snouts, densely-packed teeth and wider jaws.
article_snippet: Another study at the University of Chicago said wolves began evolving into domestic dogs between 9,000 and 34,000 years ago, while a third study said dogs may not have evolved from wolves as we know dogs today at all.