Furries aren't as recent as people tend to think either I might point out, the subculture has existed in some form since like the 80s to my understanding, it's just more popular and visible these days.
We had a general fen con in the area that was known for two large groups. furries and klingons. furries grew so big they did their own dedicated con. to bad because we had two dance rooms and the fur one had the ac maxed. was so great. dance in the regular one till you are sweating like a pig then move to the fur one.
Oh I mean, yeah, anthro characters are probably older than civilization, but I meant the furry fandom as a specific subculture rather than specifically the subject it is centered around.