Canada : Friday, 4 February 2011 (Local Time)
The red fox may have been "man's best friend" long before the domestic dog took that title, Canadian research shows.
University of Toronto professor Edward Banning and his collaborators discovered what they believe is the oldest cemetery in the Middle East, a site in northern Jordan. The cemetery includes graves with human remains buried alongside those of a red fox, suggesting the animal could have been kept as a pet by humans.
The researchers' findings were published in PLoS One this week.
Banning found the 16,500-year-old site in 2000 during an expedition with Lisa Maher, an assistant professor of anthropology at U of T and research associate at the University of Cambridge.
The red fox skull above was reconstructed from fragments found in one of the graves. (Lisa Maher et al./PLoS One)Banning said recent excavations at the site uncovered the remains of at least 11 individuals, most of them buried with "grave goods" such as stone tools, animal bones and red ochre, an iron mineral.
At least two of the graves contained partial skeletons of red foxes.
"What we appear to have found is a case where a fox was killed and buried with its owner," said Maher, who directs excavations at the site.
"Later, the grave was reopened for some reason and the human's body was moved. But because the link between the fox and the human had been significant, the fox was moved as well."
Studies have shown that foxes can be brought under human control but their skittish nature makes it a difficult task, which may explain why dogs ultimately became "man's best friend" instead.
Previous research had identified the earliest cemeteries in the region in a later period, about 15,000 to 12,000 years ago. Some of them showed evidence of humans being buried with dogs.
Story and Foto from : www.cbc.ca
