Disinterested Affection: Dogs, Humans and Evolution: American Indian dogs

Sunday, August 3, 2014

Dog remains from Santa Rosa Island, California

Remains of a dog on Santa Rosa Island, CA (T. Rick)

In a recent paper in Ethnobiology Letters Hofman and Rick (2014) report on the remains of six dog skeletons from Santa Rosa Island, in the Channel Islands of California. Native Americans colonized the Channel Islands about 13,000 YBP and inhabited the islands until about 1822. The island Chumash people were maritime foragers during the Late Holocene and potentially earlier. They lived in large villages and had sophisticated mainland and island exchange networks. Dog remains have been found in Channel Island sites as early as ~6000 YBP, but they are most common in sites dated from ~1500 YBP to the Historic Period. Ethnographic accounts of dogs are limited, suggesting that the mainland Chumash may have occasionally used dogs for food, but it is unclear if they were used in hunting. Archaeological data suggest that dogs may have been used for hunting and as working animals. Documents discussing Vizcaino’s 1602 expedition suggested that Santa Catalina Island dogs were of medium size and similar to spotted retrievers found in Europe at the time.

CA-SRI-2 is a large late Holocene village and cemetery complex on northwest Santa Rosa Island and has produced a number of dog remains. The site was excavated by Phil Orr in the 1940s-1960s and then revisited in by Rick in 2000-2003. Rick et al. (2011) used δ13C and δ15N data from dog, fox, and human bones to reconstruct diet among these three species. The Native Americans and their dogs at CA-SRI-2 had similar diets -high trophic marine organisms like finfishes, marine mammals, and seabirds, complemented by seeds, corms, and other carbohydrates. In contrast, the CA-SRI-2 island foxes appear to have eaten lower trophic level terrestrial foods. Their data confirm the commensal relationship between dogs and people, with some modest carbon enrichment in dogs perhaps from higher consumption of C3 plants and bone collagen.

The CA-SRI-2 dogs are similar in size and share some aspects of morphology to other Channel Island dogs. Two of the CASRI dogs are consistent with medium facial size (mesaticephalic dogs) and have similar characteristics to a dog from San Nicolas Island though that dog was more brachycephalic than the CA-SRI-2 dogs. Shoulder height estimates suggest that the CA-SRI-2 dogs were large to medium in size (42.52-55.09 cm), falling within or above the estimates for three other Channel Island dogs.

The CA-SRI-2 dogs share many characteristics with Plains-Indian Dog breed measurements reported by Allen for San Nicolas Island but, like some of those dogs, they also have some overlap with the Shortnosed Indian Dog. The mix of Allen’s Shortnosed and Plains-Indian Dog characteristics is further supported by dog mandible and teeth measurements reported by others for three dogs from Santa Cruz Island and a dog from San Miguel Island. These data suggest that prehistoric southern California dogs had a mix of traits with many falling into the large Indian Dog category and still others falling into the small Indian Dog category. Domestic dogs were important companions for humans on the northern and southern Channel Islands, and were scavenging and/or being fed the same types of foods that people were eating, and were often given special burial treatment.

Citations

Hofman, C., & Rick, T. (2014). The Dogs of CA-SRI-2: Osteometry of Canis familiaris from Santa Rosa Island, California. Ethnobiology Letters, 5, 65-76.

Rick, T. C., B. J. Culleton, C. B. Smith, J. R. Johnson, and D. J. Kennett. 2011. Stable Isotope Analysis of Dog, Fox, and Human Diets at a Late Holocene Chumash Village (CA-SRI-2) on Santa Rosa Island, California. Journal of Archaeological Science 38:1385-1393.

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This Blog

This blog is about dogs, dog-human relationships, and my thoughts on the origins and the domestication of dogs. When I say my thoughts, it needs qualification because much of the writing is not the result of my original thinking, but of reading research and anecdotes about dogs and humans, studies of fossils and archeological remains, anatomy, DNA, and behavior. The posts will be documented in standard fashion with author and date, and the literature cited and references are listed on a reference page or at the bottom of the post. The title comes from William Youatts’ 1846 [1857 edition] book, The Dog. On page 14 he wrote, "The dog is the only animal that is capable of disinterested affection. He is the only one that regards the human being as his companion, and follows him as his friend; the only one that seems to possess a natural desire to be useful to him, or from a spontaneous impulse attaches himself to man." Youatt’s book is remarkably insightful for the mid-19th century; he opens Chapter 1 with a comment about dogs being the most intelligent animal other than humans; notes the emotional attachments dogs and humans form, including the sense of loss when dogs loose the humans they have bonded with; and supports the idea that dogs were descended from wolves. This is an idea that was rejected and re-accepted numerous times in the 19th and 20th centuries, and one that will be discussed here.

John C. Murphy

John C. Murphy is a retired science teacher and science administrator. His most recent book Secrets of the Snake Charmer examines what we have learned about snakes in the first decade of the 21st century. Previous books include Tales of Giant Snakes, Amphibians and Reptiles of Trinidad and Tobago, and Homalopsid Snakes, Evolution in the Mud. Current interests and projects include, numerous squamate systematic projects that focus on the Neotropics and aquatic snakes. His interests also have expanded to dogs and their evolution. He is an avid photographer and a research associate in Science & Education at the Field Museum in Chicago.