ArchaeoCafé - Episode 29 - Palaeocaninology: An interview with Mietje Germonpré

In this episode, I talk with Mietje Germonpré about the origins of domesticated dogs.

Episode notes are available on the ArchaeoCafé website.
http://archaeocafe.kvasirpublishing.com/archaeocafe-podcast-ep-29-germonpre

About Mietje Germonpré

Dr. Germonpré is a paleontologist and archaeozoologist, at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, in Brussels, Belgium. Her research includes subjects such as prehistoric canid and the domestication of the wold into the dog, Pleistocene fauna at Paleolithic sites and human-animal relationships, and the seasonality and mobility of the last Neanderthals and first anatomically modern humans in North-Western Europe from a faunal perspective. Her research showed that the wolf was domesticated as a dog more than 30,000 years ago, twice as long as assumed by the current view.

Web:
https://naturalsciences-be.academia.edu/MietjeGermonpr%C3%A9
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Mietje_Germonpre
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=2xtqux0AAAAJ
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8865-0937

Some useful terminology and links

Goyet Caves
a series of connected caves near the village of Mozet in the Namur province of Belgium. During the 1860s, a dog-like cranium was discovered and dated to 31,680 years old.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goyet_Caves

Předmostí archaeological site
An important Central European, Late Pleistocene hill site in the north western part of Přerov, Moravia near the city of Přerov in the modern day Czech Republic, dated to between 24,000 and 37,000 years old.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P%C5%99edmost%C3%AD_u_P%C5%99erova_(archaeological_site)

Canids
dog-like carnivorans of the biological family Canidae. All living members of this family are part of the subfamily Caninae, and are called canines. Members of this subfamily include domestic dogs, wolves, foxes, and jackals among others.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canidae

Origins of the dog
The origin of the domestic dog includes the dog's genetic divergence from the wolf, its domestication, and its development into dog types and dog breeds.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origin_of_the_domestic_dog

Selected publications

Origins and genetic legacy of prehistoric dogs
by Anders Bergström and others
Science, 2020
https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aba9572

Self-domestication or human control? The Upper Palaeolithic domestication of the wolf
by Mietje Germonpré, and others
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/327766187/

Palaeolithic dog skulls at the Gravettian Předmostí site, the Czech Republic
by Mietje Germonpré, Martina Lázničková-Galetová, Mikhail V. Sablin
Journal of Archaeological Science, 2012
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2011.09.022

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