Lots and lots of domesticated lice.
it depends on the time period, and there weren’t ever really “cave people” about two million years ago homo erectus (upright man) evolved from a close primate relative, early on like primates they lived in the jungles or plains of Africa, humans were persistence predators meaning we cant outpace a bison but we can follow it until it collapses from exhaustion, we also gathered nuts berries and insects. over time different species of humans emerged like: homo florensis, homo rudolfensis, and homo neanderthalensis, at some point about two hundred thousand years ago the earth was shared by nearly twenty human species who all showed tool usage and language. at the same time homo sapiens (shamelessly named “wise man”) split from homo neanderthalensis as homo sapiens spread across the globe the other human species began to disappear along with all megafauna (like the giant sloth, or the mammoth) sometime ten thousand years ago homo sapiens was the last species of human left on the planet, we had also recently developed agriculture. we domesticated dogs before we developed agriculture, so we had “pets” since around sixteen thousand years ago, and it wasn’t cavemen, it was hunter gatherers.
Domestication of dogs is said to be around 15,000 years ago and “caveman” refers to humans in the paleolithic which is between 3.3 million and 11,700 years ago. So there’s a few thousand years where technically a “caveman” could have a pet dog.
Domestication of cats occurred around 9,500 years ago so past the cutoff for caveman.
Cats were like… get a proper house and some animals that do milk and I’ll think about moving in 😤
Sees pyramid
Cat: “They’re ready.”
To add, cats partnerships with humanity came with agriculture which is post caveman.
I’ll happily acknowledge that you seem to know much more about this topic than I, so the following isn’t intended as a correction, merely the suppositions of a lay person.
The question is really subjective. What is a caveman and what is a pet and how does that relate to a domestic pet.
I’m sure there has been some kind of opportunistic co-operation since forever, even if it’s as simple as a wolf pack not attacking a group of hominids because they’re dangerous but also sooner or later they will kill something and leave a carcass.
At the other end of that spectrum is something like a modern service dog which is an extension of the capability of a hominid.
Somewhere in there you cross a threshold to be a “domestic pet” whatever that is.
Another aspect of what I’m saying is that even if domestic pets emerged there will be instances of remarkable pet-like behaviors stretching back much further.
As an aside, I didn’t really read the article you linked but one part, perhaps out of context, says:
domestication of the dog began in Siberia 26,000-19,700 years ago by Ancient North Eurasians
I honestly just looked up the dates on Wikipedia! I was surprised that the dates of dog domestication and “caveman” actually overlapped but it feels like a technicality to me. The question is definitely subjective. The date range of “caveman” is literally millions of years. Human ancestors 3 million years ago and 11,700 years ago would have huge differences. I’d assume 11,700 years ago the people were more like nomadic tribes and less like “caveman”. I also don’t believe the first dogs were really pets as much as they were just alright with being around humans. Whereas the domestication of cats article talks about finding humans being buried with cats which is more of a direct sign of a pet relationship.
It’s definitely an interesting question that deserves a bit more thought than overlapping dates!
The russians have been domesticating wild red foxes since the 1950 with visible success. Thats within the lifetime of two human generations.
Dogs are said to have been domesticated multiple times, both deliberately and self-imposed.
I can definitely see a caveman domesticating animals over very few generations
I once heard someone say dogs domesticated us, not the other way around. We were played, bro!
Dogs didn’t selectively breed us for specific physical and behavioral traits.
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