In a cave in southwestern Germany, archaeologists found canid bones among butchered prey, worked antlers and bone needles left by Magdalenian people. One lower jaw, GN-999, raised a question that reaches into the origins of dog domestication: did Ice Age hunters feed wolves near their camps? A 2021 study weighed the jaw’s shape alongside bone chemistry and mitochondrial DNA. A much larger genome study published in 2026 later identified modern dog DNA contamination in several cave samples.
The jaw was not clearly a dog
The 2021 study of Gnirshöhle’s canid remains examined 65 specimens. Only two—a lower jaw, GN-999, and an upper jaw, GN-192—were measurable. GN-999 was relatively short, with crowded teeth. It also had a gap between two premolars, a feature more typical of wolves, so the paper left its classification unresolved.
The researchers also examined mitochondrial DNA from five Gnirshöhle canids. Mitochondria pass from mothers to their offspring, so these genomes trace maternal lines rather than an animal’s full ancestry. The ancient lineages showed substantial diversity, but their position among wolf and dog lineages could not identify the animals as one or the other.
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The diet evidence came from bone collagen. Carbon and nitrogen isotopes preserve clues about the protein an animal ate over time. Six Gnirshöhle canids fell into an isotope group that also included three dogs and a red fox from the Swiss site of Kesslerloch. The 2021 researchers considered whether people might have altered what some wolves ate, bringing them closer to human camps.
Those measurements cannot show who supplied the food. The same dietary signal might reflect human scraps, available prey or scavenging.
Bone chemistry cannot identify who fed an animal
A 2023 bioRxiv preprint challenged that interpretation. The group included three Kesslerloch dogs, one fox and six Gnirshöhle canids whose status was uncertain. The authors argued that calling it a “dog” niche assumed what the analysis was meant to establish; they also said the isotope differences fell within measurement uncertainty.
The critique remains a preprint. Its central objection is that the isotope values do not identify who fed these animals.
Genome-wide tests found likely modern contamination
In March 2026, a Nature study of 216 ancient canid remains included 35 samples from Gnirshöhle. The team recovered enough genome-wide data to classify 141 of the remains as dogs or wolves. Several Gnirshöhle bones carried a genetic signal resembling modern dogs, despite having radiocarbon dates of about 15,400 years ago.
The researchers looked more closely at the DNA itself. Ancient DNA usually accumulates chemical damage as it breaks down. The dog-like sequences showed far less of that damage: 1–8 percent at the ends of DNA fragments, compared with 31–40 percent in wolf-like samples from the same cave. Some also shared an unexpectedly close genetic affinity with the Bernese Mountain Dog. The team concluded that modern dog DNA had probably entered those samples at some point.
The bones dated to about 15,400 years ago, but the dog-like DNA showed too little damage for the same age. That mismatch led the team to identify modern contamination as the likely explanation. The 2021 researchers had filtered their mitochondrial reads for ancient-DNA damage and recovered sequences consistent with Late Pleistocene wolves. Neither result establishes whether people fed or tamed any individual animal.
Dogs had reached western Eurasia by 15,800 years ago
Two 2026 studies also sharpened the wider picture. The genomic study identified one 14,200-year-old dog at Switzerland’s Kesslerloch among 63 samples with enough data for classification; some samples may come from the same animal. The other 62 had wolf ancestry. A companion Nature study found dogs at Pınarbaşı in present-day Türkiye, about 15,800 years ago, and at Britain’s Gough’s Cave, about 14,300 years ago. Their genetic similarity suggests that dogs had spread across western Eurasia while hunter-gatherer cultures still differed from one another.
More complete remains and ancient nuclear DNA may show whether Gnirshöhle’s wolves were independent hunters or had started relying on people. The bones do not show whether these wolves hunted on their own or began relying on people.
The Xoloitzcuintle, an ancient Mexican dog breed that survived alongside humans, offers a much later chapter in that shared history.
Sources and further reading
- Baumann et al., “A refined proposal for the origin of dogs: the case study of Gnirshöhle,” Scientific Reports (2021)
- Bons, Bauer and Papkalla, “Dietary reconstructions of Magdalenian canids from SW-Germany do not indicate that the area was a centre of early European wolf domestication,” bioRxiv preprint (2023)
- “Genomic history of early dogs in Europe,” Nature (2026)
- “Dogs were widely distributed across western Eurasia during the Palaeolithic,” Nature (2026)
Illustration of Ice Age canids near a cave in southwestern Germany; it does not depict a documented archaeological scene.
