Wolf-Dog: Well Preserved Remains Of 18,000-Year-Old Puppy Puzzles Scientists

Scientists discovered an almost perfectly preserved body of a puppy which is believed to be 18,000 years old, leaving them baffled.

The body of the frozen canine was discovered by Russian scientists near Yakutsk in eastern Siberia. The permafrost has helped preserve the canine’s nose, fur and teeth remarkably. Even its eyelashes and whiskers are in good condition.

Experts from Sweden's Centre for Palaeogenetics used carbon dating on the specimen’s ribs to confirm that it has been frozen for almost 18,000 years. According to the scientists, the puppy was two-months old when it died. However, they were not able to confirm if the specimen was a wolf or a dog, CNN reported.

"We have a lot of data from it already, and with that amount of data, you'd expect to tell if it was one or the other,” David Stanton, a researcher at the Centre for Palaeogenetics, told CNN. “The fact that we can't might suggest that it's from a population that was ancestral to both -- to dogs and wolves."

According to Stanton, the canine is from a very interesting time in terms of dog and wolf evolution.

"We don't know exactly when dogs were domesticated, but it may have been from about that time,” he said.

A genome analysis revealed that the canine was male and the scientists at the Center for Palaeogenetics decided to name him Dogor, which means friend in Yakutian.

Though it is believed that modern dogs were domesticated from wolves, it is unclear when it happened. A study published in the journal Nature Communications suggests the period of domestication to be between 20,000 to 40,000 years ago.

Stanton believes that further tests carried out on the specimen would be able to reveal exactly when dogs were domesticated. The scientists are currently trying to find out whether the canine is actually a dog or a wolf or something that is halfway between the two.

Scientists are aiming to carry out more tests on it to determine the origins of Dogor.