The oldest dog in the world was a puppy that lived 16,000 years ago in Turkey and ate fish

https://english.elpais.com/culture/2026-03-29/the-oldest-dog-in-the-world-was-a-puppy-that-lived-16000-years-ago-in-turkey-and-ate-fish.html

106 points · 12 comments · view on lemmy.world

12 Comments

HenriVolney@sh.itjust.works · 26 pts · 133d (2 replies)

Title: oldest known dog

acosmichippo@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 132d

probably a translation issue, it’s a Spanish paper.

porcoesphino@mander.xyz · 2 pts · 133d

Yeah, its a bit jarring

Professorozone@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 133d

What a weird way to phrase it.

I mean, if it was old, why call it a puppy?

Do they mean the oldest bones found but the dog was actually young?

Why use the word "was?" Is it dead? I thought the point was that it was 16,000 years old.

MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip · 6 pts · 132d (1 reply)

They died very young, at perhaps just a few months old

That's not old.

username_1@programming.dev · 4 pts · 132d
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Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works · 5 pts · 132d

If there really was a 16,000 year old dog found I would start a religion around it. I bet I could beat out Scientology easy, probably Wiccanism, and maybe even Mormons before I died... Definitely could get enough members to ascend from Cult to Religion status.

"Only Dog can judge me"

pickman_model@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 132d (3 replies)

I think the title is a bad edit of "the oldest domestic dog was a puppy..."

TigerAce@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 132d

I think the title is wrong anyway, as it should have said "the oldest found dog" because there's a high possibility there were older dogs that we haven't found. We don't have undeniable proof this one is the real oldest one. It's also a transition from wolf, so when was the turning point from wolf to dog? Or did they bred one in a lab 16000 years ago and said: "We finally did it! We created the first dog!"

partofthevoice@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 132d (1 reply)

Aren’t dogs a domesticated species, putting the domestication on the prerequisite side?

Tollana1234567@lemmy.today · 2 pts · 132d

and thier genome is different from the wolf too.

Tollana1234567@lemmy.today · 1 pts · 132d

wouldnt it be a cub, it would still be mostly wolf ancestry.

Cekan14@lemmy.org · 1 pts · 132d

I'm Spanish, and the title not sounding natural to native English speakers is something that happens very often when writing in a language that you only learned at an older age. 

Keep in mind that living in an environment surrounded by a different language than the one you artificially try to communicate on comes with such disadvantage, because the grammar structures are not the same and, yet, your brain unconsciously tries to apply them because it is what it feels right or natural to do, even if it isn't.

PD: El País is a Spanish newspaper.