In the summer of 2018, an ancient puppy was discovered in a piece of frozen ground near the Indigirka River, northeast of Yakutsk (RF), miraculously preserved with a full body, muzzle and even whiskers and eyelashes.
The cause of death of the male dog with milk teeth, who lived 18,000 years ago, has not yet been determined.
According to The Siberian Times, specialists from the Swedish Center for Paleogenetics (CPG) and Russian scientists from the Institute of Applied Ecology of the North are researching the find.
To professor of evolutionary genetics Lava Dalen, usually the first DNA test is enough to understand a wolf the animal is or a dog.
“CPG has Europe’s largest DNA base for dogs from all over the world, but in this case, the first attempt failed to uniquely identify the animal,” the researchers said.
Probably, the discovered Dogor puppy (named so from Yakut language, which means “friend”) is a representative of an early dog - a transitional stage from a wolf to a dog. The puppy’s preliminary age is estimated at 18,000 years, which allows him to be called the oldest dog in the world today. It is officially believed that dogs were domesticated about 10,000-15,000 years ago.
Due to the fact that Dogor was in permafrost, bones and soft tissues, wool, eyelashes, whiskers and teeth were completely preserved.
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