October 13. It's National Fossil Day. And no - it's not my human's birthday. It's a day to celebrate remains and traces of animals, and plants from a LONG time ago found in rocks and sediment. The cool thing about fossils is that they give us a picture of life way back when and an idea about how all of us have evolved.
There have been many findings of fossils of dogs - including the Paleolithic dog - whose fossilized remains have been found across Europe. Skulls of those early dogs have been found alongside the remains of mammoths - and in the hunting camps of humans - possibly indicating the early domestication of us canines. You humans THINK you domesticated us, but of COURSE, we know it is the other way around. Think about it. You feed us, wash us, pick up our poop... who is controlling who?
In looking for information about dog fossils, I found two REALLY cool facts:
- Just this past year, some researchers in Maryland unearthed the fossil of a "new dog" believed to have existed 12 MILLION years ago. Even before humans. They lived on a diet of plants, insects and meat. The scientific name is Cynarctus wangi, and they were believed to be about the size of a coyote. Given the timeline here - I think we have even MORE evidence about domestication.....Yup. We were here FIRST.
- There is a cave in Southern France - the Chauvet Cave- which was discovered to have some of the earliest cave paintings ever. They were created over 32,000 years ago. And while the paintings themselves are quite amazing, I LOVED this other fact....in the cave was a 50metre trail...believed to have been made by a young boy of about ten who was carrying a torch. And longside his footprints were those of a large canid - a wolf or a dog. So it looks like the little boy had a friend way back then...How COOL is that?! Wonder what his name was...
Have a rockin' good day!
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