According to Professor Pat Shipman (an anthropologist at Penn State) and author of a book, dogs bred from Wolves helped humans defeat local Neanderthals 40,000 years back from Europe. She hypothesizes that our alliance with the wolves elevated us to the top of their food chain. In her book “The Invaders”, Prof. Shipman explains that Neanderthals, modern humans, and wolves were at the top of the food chain. “But then, we formed an alliance avec the wolf, and that would have ended for the Neanderthal.” (citation below). In this context the term “modern human” refers to people who are anatomically, and possibly also behaviorally, indistinguishable with humans of today. The perfect predatory alliance was formed between modern humans and dogs that were bred from wolves, which Neanderthals couldn’t compete with. Image: Harvard University Press. Anthropologists believe that modern humans evolved in Africa, and moved out around 70,000years ago. About 45,000 years after they arrived in Europe. The continent of Europe was ruled by Neanderthals. These were our evolutionary relatives who lived there for more than 200,000years. Neanderthals are one of our most closely-related relatives. They have large brains and strong bodies, as well as sophisticated hunting skills and tools. Both types of human coexisted for a time, but the Neanderthals vanished after just a few thousand year. Professor Shipman will be able to solve one of the most mysterious mysteries in evolution if she is correct about modern humans, and dogs that were bred from wolves. Experts have struggled for decades to understand why Neanderthals disappeared. Many believe that Neanderthals weren’t able to adjust to climate changes at the close of the last ice age. It begs the questions “Why?” It begs the question “Why did modern humans adapt?” Professor Shipman thinks that modern humans’ more advanced skills and weaponry are partly to blame. She adds that we had another collaborator, the wolf. Pat Shipman is an Adjunct Professor in Anthropology at Pennsylvania State University. Professor Shipman explained that early wolf-dogs tracked animals such as bison and elk, and then would harass them until they were tired. They would then have been killed with spears.” This means that dogs made from wolves and modern humans worked in tandem to chase down prey. We finished it off using our weapons. Modern humans and dogs became the leaders of prehistoric Europe’s food chain, pushing the Neanderthals to third. The Neanderthals were then overthrown by them, along with bison, hyenas mammoths, and mammoths just a few thousand year later. Professor Shipman suggests that this alliance of two predators – humans and wolves, gave them an advantage over Neanderthals in a climate when both were vulnerable. Citation: Pat Shipman, “The Invaders”: How humans and their dogs drove Neanderthals towards extermination. Harvard University Press.ISBN 9780674736764. Publication: March 2015.
