Researcher Samuel Belknap III poses with a skull of a domestic dog, Friday, Jan. 14, 2011, at the University of Maine in Orono. Belknap found a bone fragment of what he says is the oldest-known domesticated... (Associated Press) 
 
 This photo made in Feb, 2010 shows a bone fragment of a dog skull discovered in the Hinds Cave in southwest Texas. University of Maine researcher Samuel Belknap III found a bone fragment of what he says... (Associated Press) 
 
 Researcher Samuel Belknap III works at his microscope in his research lab, Friday, Jan. 14, 2011, at the University of Maine in Orono. Belknap found a bone fragment of what he says is the oldest-known... (Associated Press) 
 
 This June 2009 photo provided by University of Maine researcher Samuel Belknap III shows the Hinds Cave in southwest Texas. Belknap found a bone fragment of what he says is the oldest-known domesticated... (Associated Press) 
 
 That's what researchers are saying after finding a bone fragment from what they are calling the earliest confirmed domesticated dog in the Americas. 
 
 University of Maine graduate student Samuel Belknap III came across the fragment while analyzing a dried-out sample of human waste unearthed in southwest Texas in the 1970s. A carbon-dating test put the age of the bone at 9,400 years, and a DNA analysis confirmed it came from a dog _ not a wolf, coyote or fox, Belknap said. 
 
 Because it was found deep inside a pile of human excrement and was the characteristic orange-brown color that bone turns when it has passed through the digestive tract, the fragment provides the earliest direct evidence that dogs _ besides being used for company, security and hunting _ were eaten by humans and may even have been bred as a food source, he said. 
 
 Belknap wasn't researching dogs when he found the bone. Rather, he was looking into the diet and nutrition of the people who lived in the Lower Pecos region of Texas between 1,000 and 10,000 years ago. 
 
 "It just so happens this person who lived 9,400 years ago was eating dog," Belknap said. 
 
 Belknap and other researchers from the University of Maine and the University of Oklahoma's molecular anthropology laboratories, where the DNA analysis was done, have written a paper on their findings. 
 
 The paper has been scientifically reviewed and accepted, pending revisions, for publication in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology later this year, said editor in chief Christopher Ruff. He declined comment on the article until it has been published. 
 
 Dogs have played an important role in human culture for thousands of years. 
 
 There are archaeological records of dogs going back 31,000 years from a site in Belgium, 26,000 years in the Czech Republic and 15,000 years in Siberia, said Robert Wayne, a professor of evolutionary biology at UCLA and a dog evolution expert. But canine records in the New World aren't as detailed or go back nearly as far. 
 
 For his research, Belknap _ who does not own a dog himself _ had fecal samples shipped to him that had been unearthed in 1974 and 1975 from an archaeological site known as Hinds Cave and kept in storage at Texas A&M University. The fragment is about six-tenths of an inch long and three- to four-tenths of an inch wide, or about the size of a fingernail on a person's pinkie. 
 
 He and a fellow student identified the bone as a fragment from where the skull connects with the spine. He said it came from a dog that probably resembled the small, short-nosed, short-haired mutts that were common among the Indians of the Great Plains. 
 
 Judging by the size of the bone, Belknap figures the dog weighed about 25 to 30 pounds. He also found what he thinks was a bone from a dog foot, but the fragment was too small to be analyzed. 
 
 Other archaeological digs have put dogs in the U.S. dating back 8,000 years or more, but this is the first time it has been scientifically proved that dogs were here that far back, he said. 
 
 Darcy Morey, a faculty member at Radford University who has studied dog evolution for decades, said a study from the 1980s dated a dog found at Danger Cave, Utah, at between 9,000 and 10,000 years old. Those dates were based not on carbon-dating or DNA tests, but on an analysis of the surrounding rock layers. 
 
 "So 9,400 years old may be the oldest, but maybe not," Morey said in an e-mail. 
 
 Morey, whose 2010 book, "Dogs: Domestication and the Development of a Social Bond," traces the evolution of dogs, said he is skeptical about DNA testing on a single bone fragment because dogs and wolves are so similar genetically. 
 
 Belknap said there may well be older dogs in North America, but this is the oldest directly dated one he is aware of. For many years, researchers thought that dog bones from an archaeological site in Idaho were 11,000 years old, but additional testing put their age at between 1,000 and 3,000 years old, he said. 
 
 "If there's one thing our discovery is showing it's that we can utilize these techniques and learn a lot more about dogs in the New World if we apply these tests to all these early samples," he said. 
 
 The earliest dogs in North America are believed to have come with the early settlers across the Bering land bridge from Asia to the Americas 10,000 years ago or earlier, said Wayne, who has not seen Belknap's research. 
 
 It doesn't surprise Belknap that dogs were a source of food for humans. 
 
 A lot of people in Central America regularly ate dogs, he said. Across the Great Plains, some Indian tribes ate dogs when food was scarce or for celebrations, he said. 
 
 "It was definitely an accepted practice among many populations," he said. ||||| The world's oldest known domesticated dog from the Americas weighed about 30 pounds, lived 9,400 years ago in Texas, and wound up as some person's dinner, according to a University of Maine press release. 
 
 What's left of the dog -- a skull fragment and a possible foot bone -- strongly suggests that the canine was cared for by humans before being butchered, cooked and consumed. 
 
 Dogs Dumbed Down by Domestication 
 
 “This is an important scientific discovery that can tell us not only a lot about the genetic history of dogs but of the interactions between humans and dogs in the past,�? Samuel Belknap III, who made the discovery, was quoted as saying in the press release. “Not only were they most likely companions as they are today, they served as protection, hunting assistants, and also as a food source.�? 
 
 Belknap, a UMaine researcher in the Department of Anthropology and Climate Change Institute, plans to publish his findings in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology as well as other scientific journals. 
 
 The discovery was somewhat unintended, because Belknap wasn't trying to dig up old bones from dogs. He was instead conducting thesis research on ancient diet and nutrition of humans during the Holocene Era in the Lower Pecos Region of Texas. 
 
 “I didn’t start out looking for the oldest dog in the New World,�? Belknap explained. “I started out trying to understand human diet in southwest Texas. It so happens that this person, who lived 9,400 years ago, was eating dog. It just goes to show that sometimes, great scientific discoveries come not when we are looking for specific answers but when we are thorough in our examination of the evidence and open to what data it provides.�? 
 
 The fossilized human waste was first recovered in the 1970s from Hinds Cave, a major archaeological site in southwest Texas near the Mexico border. While studying the fossil and others, Belknap and colleague Robert Ingraham visually identified the encased bone as belonging to a dog's skull. 
 
 Small Dogs Originated in the Middle East 
 
 The researchers did some more investigating and determined the bone fragment closely matched that of a short-nosed Indian Dog from New Mexico. The bone then underwent genetic analysis at the Molecular Anthropology Lab at the University of Oklahoma. The DNA supports the conclusion that the skull bone came from a domesticated dog instead of from a wolf, coyote or fox. It was found to be closely related to a Peruvian dog species. 
 
 New World dogs didn't emerge in Peru. Instead it's thought that a species of Eurasian wolf probably crossed the Bering land bridge into North America when people first began to settle the Americas. Sometime after that, the wolves were domesticated and wound up in South America, Texas and other locations. 
 
 Archaeologists and other scientists often find old dog bones, with many researchers purporting to have found the world's first this or that. The new research holds more weight, as Belknap and his team used a formal dating technique known as Accelerated Mass Spectrometric Radiocarbon Dating to determine the age of the skull fragment. 
 
 “For a long time there were several dog bones from Jaguar Cave in Idaho that were believed to be over 11,000 years old. But once they were directly dated, they were found to be only 1,000 to 3000 years old,�? he said. “So it’s a cautionary tale of the need to directly date things. It’s important to do it.�? 
 
 Mummified Dogs Unearthed in Peru 
 
 The 9,400-year age of the dog remnant is impressive for the Americas, but other evidence from Europe and Asia indicate that the world's first dogs were domesticated 15,000 or more years ago. 
 
 The ancient Texas dog gives new meaning to hot dog, as it was probably chopped up and cooked in a special dish, Belknap suspects. Dogs were said to be consumed either in times of desperation or times of celebration. 
 
 He thinks "it could be that the smaller bones broke off in the butchering process and found their way into a stew or soup." 
 
 Fast forwarding to more modern forms of dog breeding, it's thought that there are presently fourteen contenders for the title of "world's oldest breed," according to the paper "Genetic Structure of the Purebred Domestic Dog" in the journal Science. 
 
 The fourteen identified "ancient breeds" are: 
 
 
 
 Afghan Hound 
 
 Akita 
 
 Alaskan Malamute 
 
 Basenji 
 
 Chow Chow 
 
 Lhasa Apso 
 
 Pekingese 
 
 Saluki 
 
 Samoyed 
 
 Shar-pei 
 
 Shiba Inu 
 
 Shih Tzu 
 
 Siberian Husky 
 
 Tibetan Terrier 
 
 Top photo: Modern Blue Lacy dog. The Blue Lacy is presently thought to be the only dog breed originating from Texas, so it could be related to the prehistoric canine that wound up as someone's food. Image: Wikimedia Commons. Bottom photo: Peruvian Hairless Dog, a dog species native to Peru; Image: Joel Takv
– The first known domesticated dog in the Americas lived some 9,400 years ago and likely provided its owner with company, security, and, eventually, dinner, an ancient bone fragment suggests. A University of Maine researcher found the bone fragment in a prehistoric sample of human waste in Texas. DNA testing confirmed that it came from a dog and not a wolf, AP reports. Researchers believe American dog breeds, like the ancient pooch, are descended from Eurasian wolves that crossed the Bering land bridge along with human settlers. “I didn’t start out looking for the oldest dog in the New World,” the researcher tells Discovery. “I started out trying to understand human diet in southwest Texas. It so happens that this person, who lived 9,400 years ago, was eating dog."