SCIENTISTS have discovered two 14,000-year-old mummified “puppies” with their fur still intact and food still in their stomachs.
Hidden beneath deep layers of permafrost in Northern Siberia, the ice age creatures were initially thought to be domesticated dogs.
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The well-preserved cubs — which turned out to be sisters — were later found to be were actually wolf cubs.
The “Tumat Puppies,” as they are known, contain hints of a last meal in their stomachs, including meat from a woolly rhinoceros and feathers from a small bird called a wagtail.
The mummified animal carcasses were found in 2011 and 2015 alongside woolly mammoth bones that were seemingly cut and burned by humans.
This suggests the wolf cubs might have been domesticated by humans who ate the meat before giving away the leftovers.
However, there was no indication that the pups got their food directly from humans or even from rummaging through humans’ mammoth butchering sites, researchers said.
Anne Kathrine Runge, an archaeologist at the University of York in the UK, analysed genetic data from the gut contents as well as chemical signatures in the bones, teeth and soft tissue.
Experts now believe that the animals were two-month-old wolf pups, believed to be sisters, with no evidence of interacting with people.
The sisters “inhabited a diverse landscape that was also occupied by humans,” they wrote, but “this study found no evidence that can conclusively link them to human activities.”
How the wolf cubs died also remains a mystery.
“Neither showed signs of being attacked or injured either, which suggests that they died suddenly when the underground den collapsed, perhaps triggered by a landslide, and trapped them inside”, the study said.
Ms Runge said: “It was incredible to find two sisters from this era so well preserved, but even more incredible that we can now tell so much of their story, down to the last meal that they ate.
“Whilst many will be disappointed that these animals are almost certainly wolves and not early domesticated dogs, they have helped us get closer to understanding the environment at the time, how these animals lived, and how remarkably similar wolves from more than 14,000 years ago are to modern day wolves.”
Nathan Wales, an ancient-DNA specialist at the University of York, said: “Today, litters are often larger than two, and it is possible that the Tumat Puppies had siblings that escaped their fate.
“There may also be more cubs hidden in the permafrost.”
The DNA testing showed that they likely belonged to a now-extinct population of wolves unrelated to today’s dogs.
Dogs and wolves are belived to be closely related.
However, they diverged genetically somewhere between 20,000 and 40,000 years ago, according to Live Science,
What is the Siberian permafrost?
Siberian permafrost is a vast expanse of permanently frozen ground that covers approximately 80 per cent of Siberia, a region in the north-eastern part of Asia.
This frozen layer, composed of soil, rock, gravel, and sand bound together by ice, remains at or below 0°C (32°F) for at least two consecutive years.
Its thickness varies significantly, from less than a meter to over 1,500 meters in some parts of northern Siberia, such as the Lena and Yana River basins.
The extent of permafrost is categorised into continuous, where 90-100% of the land is frozen, discontinuous (50-90%), and sporadic (10-50%).
This frozen ground has historically provided a stable foundation for infrastructure, including large cities and industrial complexes.
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It comes after another mummified wolf pup dating back 57,000 years was unearthed in Canada – with its fur and teeth still intact.
The Ice Age creature’s head, tail, paws, fur and skin were perfectly preserved in the Arctic permafrost after it died aged just seven weeks.
Its remains dug up by a gold miner near Dawson City in the Yukon also included exceptional details of the muscle tissues.
The animal, a female, is thought to have died suddenly after its den collapsed.
The remarkable find opens a window to life in ancient Canada‘s far north when woolly mammoths roamed the Earth.
It also sheds light on the seven week old’s lifestyle – and the evolution of modern wolves. The animal is the oldest ancient wolf on record.
Lead author Professor Julie Meachen, of Des Moines University, Iowa, said: “She’s the most complete wolf mummy that’s ever been found.
“She’s basically 100 per cent intact – all that’s missing are her eyes.
“And the fact she’s so complete allowed us to do so many lines of inquiry on her to basically reconstruct her life.”
The animal has been named Zhur – meaning “wolf” in the local indigenous Han language.
By studying hair and tooth chemicals, the researchers found the pup’s mother mainly ate aquatic foods.
That probably meant seasonal consumption of fish from the Klondike River, which still has a modern-day spawning population of Chinook salmon.
In other news, sacrificed llama mummies have been dug up in Peru and they’re almost perfectly preserved after 500 years.
A Viking temple dedicated to Old Norse gods like Thor has been unearthed by archaeologists.
The world’s most gruesome ancient burials
Here’s some of the most haunting archaeological discoveries ever made…
- Shackled skeletons: A mass grave in an ancient Greek cemetery was found to contain 80 skeletons all with their wrists clamped in iron shackles; archaeologists think they were victims of a mass execution but why this happened remains a mystery
- Mass child sacrifice: The remains of nearly 270 children sacrificed to the gods 500 years ago were recently found in a gruesome ancient mass grave in Peru
- Family massacre: Archaeologists recently discovered that a 5,000 year old mass grave site was the result of a tragic family massacre; the burial site in Poland contains the bodies of men, women and children who all had their skulls smashed to pieces
- Bog bodies: In 1950, experts found a bog body with a “face so fresh they could only suppose they had stumbled on a recent murder.” The corpse, referred to as the Tollund man, is probably the most well-preserved body from pre-historic times in the whole world
