The timing of wolf domestication remains a subject of intense debate, especially as recent genetic, morphological and radiometric analyses of relevant skeletal material apparently demonstrate the presence of canids on Eurasian Early Upper Palaeolithic sites to be more widespread than previously envisaged. However, numerous questions still surround wolf domestication, not least of which is satisfactorily explaining the process whereby this social carnivore progressively became a ‘member’ of human societies.

The analysis presented here emphasises the substantial variability of both modern and Pleistocene wolf populations, and in doing so, further highlights the need for caution when considering species attributions and, more particularly, accurately identifying dog rather than wolf remains in archaeological assemblages. A combination of biometric and morphological data provides a reliable basis for critiquing a series of recent publications purportedly demonstrating the presence of dogs alongside humans during the Early Upper Palaeolithic.