Humans and dogs have a long history. The relationship between the two species is tens of thousands of years old. However, a fresh analysis of evidence from a Patagonian burial dating back about 1,500 years hints at a similar close connection between a hunter-gatherer in southern South America and the large extinct fox species Dusicyon avus.

Archaeologists originally uncovered the near-complete D. avus skeleton buried alongside a human at Cañada Seca, a site in northern Patagonia, in 1991. There were no cut marks on the bones, so the fox hadn’t been eaten, said Dr. Ophélie Lebrasseur, a researcher with the Wellcome Trust Palaeogenomics and Bio-Archaeology Research Network at the University of Oxford’s School of Archaeology in the United Kingdom.

An in-depth analysis of ancient DNA and radiocarbon dating confirmed the fox’s species and age, and examination of collagen in the fox’s remains revealed that it ate the same food that this group of humans did. Along with the skeleton’s placement in the grave, the animal’s diet suggested that the fox was tame and may have been kept as a pet, scientists reported Wednesday in the journal Royal Society Open Science.