Mammal remains in prehistoric sites in the Canary Islands

Abstract

The preliminary results from the studies of mammal remains in prehistoric cites on four of the Canary Islands show that during the beginning of the Third Century on two islands far from each other, Tenerife: 200 A.D. in "Don Gaspar" cave and Fuerteventura: 200 A.D. in "Villaverde" cave, there were goats, sheep and pigs. The generalized idea that dogs were so abundant in the Canaries that the name of the archipelago derived from them (Canis) has no archaeological basis because very few dog remains have been found, no more than four or five isolate teeth and a falanx in more than 100.000 bones examined.