It has been suggested by
Steve Bodio and others that modern humans' migration into the Americas across the Bering land bridge was dependent on an ally — the dog.
Until they had dogs, a continent with giant bears, giant wolves, and other toothy things was just too intimidating.
Meanwhile, back in Europe, did dogs help modern humans out-compete Neanderthal? (And did Neanderthals themselves have wolf-dogs?
The evidence is ambiguous.)
National Geographic interviews anthropologist Pat Shipman, author of a new book on how dogs may have helped modern humans to out-compete Neanderthals:
"[Early wolf-dogs are] large, have big teeth and all those predatory, dog/wolf
characteristics. You have to assume from the anatomy that they could
track very well from the scent of an animal. They were built to be fast
running, as wolves and most dogs are. Humans don't run terribly fast. We
have a crappy sense of smell. We do cooperate with each other, which is
helpful, and we had long-distance weapons, like spears and bows and
arrows.
"Neanderthals seem to have specialized in stabbing an animal at close
quarters with handheld weapons and wrestling it down. We had weapons we
could launch from a distance, which is a very big advantage. There's a
lot less risk of personal injury."
(
The people today with comparable skeletal injuries to Neanderthals are rodeo riders.)
Maybe dogs helped modern humans to become
better rabbit-hunters than their chunkier relatives.
But I have another scenario in mind:
Hunter 1: Hey, Little Hawk, look at White Dog! She thinks there is something in that cave.
Hunter 2: I bet one of those squat ugly bastards is lurking in there. Or his big ugly woman.
Hunter 1: White Dog, come here! Little Hawk, get the others! We'll smoke 'em out."