Puppy Frozen Thousands Of Years Found In Siberia


This week, scientists have discovered a mummified puppy from 12,400 years ago. The extinct Pleistocene canid was found in a 1.1 million mile stretch of Russia called the Sakah Republic.

Evidence of human activity was found in the same area, so the dog was likely someone’s pet. It’s brain has remained fairly intact. This is the first time scientists have obtained a brain from this species.

One of the scientists involved is Hwang Woo-suk. He is the South Korean professor wanting to clone wooly mammoths and other extinct animals. He has now added the Pleistocene to his list of animals he wants to clone. The degree of preservation is between 70 and 80 percent. They will do MRI scans of its brain before extracting it.

Another specimen was found about four years ago, but this one is much more preserved. They have gotten some good samples of hair and skin from the animal.

One of the Russian scientists, Sergei Fedorov, said about the puppy:

“The condition of our new find is perfect. It is preserved from nose to tail, including the hair. You can see the hair on the paw on the picture.”

They think that both dogs died during a landslide. The Russian scientists are planning more work to look into the genetic structure of these specimens.

They are also looking in the intestines of the puppy to look at extinct parasitic species from that time.

Professor Woo-suk is looking to build a genetic research institute in China. It is being set up by Chinese genetic firm Boyalife. It will have cloning labs and a gene bank. They are planning on making dogs and cows and horses to be sold on the open market.

Hopefully, this find will help us discover a lot of information about this extinct dog species and about the history of our planet.

 

Featured image by Motorolla via pixabay, available under Creative Commons CCO license.

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