With an expert’s eye, Juliet Clutton-Brock could distinguish a bear’s foot from a pig’s by glancing at only a couple of bones. As an archaeozoologist who worked for decades at the Natural History Museum in London, she had spent years studying the prehistoric remains of animals found in and around human settlements, some up to 40,000 years old. Her publications shed light on the most significant historical interactions between humans and animals, as well as the correlations between wild and domestic creatures.
A fiercely intellectual and wryly humorous woman, she became especially known for her work on the domestication of the dog, cat and horse. “Why did wolves allow themselves to become dogs?” and “When did wild cats agree to curl up in people’s laps?”