Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology

This paper synthesizes the data on prehistoric dogs (Canis familiaris) and other related canids in the eastern Great Basin. Data presented here suggest that domesticated dogs were relatively rare in the eastern Great Basin throughout the Holocene. Skeletal remains of dogs appear to be more commonly associated with sites in wetland habitats, a pattern previously identified in the western Great Basin. In these habitats, dogs may have been able to subsist with little or no assistance from humans.