A 9,400-year-old dog skeleton has been found in Texas.

A 9,400-year-old dog skeleton has been found in Texas.

Researchers say they found a bone fragment from the earliest confirmed domesticated dog in the Americas.

University of Maine graduate student Samuel Belknap III found the fragment while analyzing a dried-out piece of waste unearthed in Southern Texas back in the 1970’s.

A DNA analysis confirmed the bone came from a dog and carbon-dating placed the age around 9,400 years.

The bone fragment was found deep inside a pile of human excrement and has a characteristic orange-brown color that would mean it passed through the digestive tract.

"It just so happens this person who lived 9,400 years ago was eating dog," Belknap said.

Dogs may have been bred for comfort, security and food back then, researchers said.

The earliest dogs in North America are believed to have come with the early settlers across the Bering land bridge from Asia to the Americas 10,000 years ago or earlier, researchers say.

There may be older dogs in America, but the bone fragment is one of the few confirmed, Belknap said.