Somewhere between 45,000 and 15,000 years ago, humans became much better hunters. Researchers have long known about sites in Eurasia containing the bones of large numbers of mammoths. These sites also contained the bones of predators such as wolves and foxes.

In a new article titled “How do you kill 86 mammoths?”, published online through Quaternary International, Penn State Professor Emerita Pat Shipman has put forward a new hypotheses. Shipman suggests that, rather than wolves, some of the bones belonged to early domesticated dogs. This, she suggests, accounts for the sudden improvement in hunting skills.

“One of the greatest puzzles about these sites is how such large numbers of mammoths could have been killed with the weapons available during that time,” said Shipman in a statement.

Humans had hunted mammoths for a million years prior to the dates of the mammoth bone sites in question. To Shipman this suggested a new technique and the presence of dog bones, presumed to be wolves provided a clue.

“Dogs help hunters find prey faster and more often, and dogs also can surround a large animal and hold it in place by growling and charging while hunters move in. Both of these effects would increase hunting success. Furthermore, large dogs like those identified by Germonpré either can help carry the prey home or, by guarding the carcass from other carnivores, can make it possible for the hunters to camp at the kill sites,” said Shipman.

A prior study by Hervé Bocherens and Dorothée Drucker of the University of Tubingen in Germany, carried out at the Czech site of Predmostí, strengthens her argument. The German researchers found that some of the dogs at the site had different diets from that of wolves, which could indicate feeding by humans.

If it was at this point that dogs were domesticated it could tell us a great deal about human history and our relationship with canines. During the ice age survival would have been challenging for early man. Not only was our technology primitive at the time but humans hadn’t yet reached the top of the food chain.

Two intelligent species, one with the ability to strategize and make tools and the other with the ability to track and herd prey would have been a powerful combination and could have turned the tide.

“If hunters working with dogs catch more prey, have a higher intake of protein and fat, and have a lower expenditure of energy, their reproductive rate is likely to rise,” said Shipman.

In addition to more food and a rising reproductive rate, domestic dogs would have helped to chase away or fight predators. During the agricultural revolution about 5,000 years later (approximately 10,000 BCE) dogs would have again been able to help. In an agricultural setting, dogs would allow farmers to control larger herds and fend off predators such as wolves and foxes and pests such as crows and rodents.

The relationship between dogs and humans could potentially, in part, be what allowed us to rise to the top of the food chain, increase our population and provide the stability necessary for the building of civilizations.

More research is required to test the hypothesis. Fortunately, however, researchers already know where to look. “If more of these distinctive doglike canids are found at large, long-term sites with unusually high numbers of dead mammoths and wolves; if the canids are consistently large, strong individuals; and if their diets differ from those of wolves. Dogs may indeed be man’s best friend,” said Shipman.