Dogor is a preserved canine specimen that was found in the Siberian permafrost of Sakha in 2018. It is a remarkably well preserved two-month-old male puppy with fur and whiskers remaining. The animal has been determined to be 18,000 years old. At first, DNA sequencing was unable to identify the animal as either a dog or a wolf. Anders Bergström, a postdoctoral fellow in ancient genomics at the Francis Crick Institute in London, identified Dogor as an ancient wolf as reported in a research study on June 29, 2022 in Nature magazine.[1] However, the specimen did not belong to the ancient east Eurasian progenitor population of wolves from which dogs are thought to have evolved, suggesting perhaps a dual ancestry for dogs.

The specimen was named Dogor by scientists, with the word meaning "friend" (Cyrillic: Догор) in the local Yakut language.

Description

Dogor was found in the permafrost near the Indigirka River, north-east of Yakutsk, Sakha Republic in eastern Siberia during summer 2018.[2][3] It is the body of a two-month-old male canine puppy.[4] The body is remarkably well preserved, and its fur, whiskers, nose and teeth remain intact.[4][5] A part of its rib bone was analysed by radiocarbon dating, which placed it at 18,000 years old.[5]

Identification

Due to the animal's age, it was possible that it represented an evolutionary link between dogs and wolves.[4] Scientists continue to debate the exact point at which dogs were first domesticated, but if Dogor was determined to be a dog, he would have been the oldest ever discovered.[4][5] Dogor was, therefore, described as coming from "a very interesting time in terms of wolf and dog evolution", possibly from around the time of the first domestication of dogs.[3]

DNA sequencing is usually sufficient to distinguish between dogs and wolves; however, even after a large amount of analysis, it was not initially possible to determine to which species Dogor belonged.[3] It was possible that Dogor represented a common ancestor of both species.[4] Further DNA sequencing was undertaken in Denmark to provide more insight.[4][6] Dogor was eventually identified as an ancient wolf in June 2022.[7][1]

References

  1. 1 2 Bergström, Anders; Stanton, David W. G.; Taron, Ulrike H.; Frantz, Laurent; Sinding, Mikkel-Holger S.; Ersmark, Erik; Pfrengle, Saskia; Cassatt-Johnstone, Molly; Lebrasseur, Ophélie; Girdland-Flink, Linus; Fernandes, Daniel M.; Ollivier, Morgane; Speidel, Leo; Gopalakrishnan, Shyam; Westbury, Michael V.; Ramos-Madrigal, Jazmin; Feuerborn, Tatiana R.; Reiter, Ella; Gretzinger, Joscha; Münzel, Susanne C.; Swali, Pooja; Conard, Nicholas J.; Carøe, Christian; Haile, James; Linderholm, Anna; Androsov, Semyon; Barnes, Ian; Baumann, Chris; Benecke, Norbert; Bocherens, Hervé; Brace, Selina; Carden, Ruth F.; Drucker, Dorothée G.; Fedorov, Sergey; Gasparik, Mihály; Germonpré, Mietje; Grigoriev, Semyon; Groves, Pam; Hertwig, Stefan T.; Ivanova, Varvara V.; Janssens, Luc; Jennings, Richard P.; Kasparov, Aleksei K.; Kirillova, Irina V.; Kurmaniyazov, Islam; Kuzmin, Yaroslav V.; Kosintsev, Pavel A.; Lázničková-Galetová, Martina; Leduc, Charlotte; Nikolskiy, Pavel; Nussbaumer, Marc; O’Drisceoil, Cóilín; Orlando, Ludovic; Outram, Alan; Pavlova, Elena Y.; Perri, Angela R.; Pilot, Małgorzata; Pitulko, Vladimir V.; Plotnikov, Valerii V.; Protopopov, Albert V.; Rehazek, André; Sablin, Mikhail; Seguin-Orlando, Andaine; Storå, Jan; Verjux, Christian; Zaibert, Victor F.; Zazula, Grant; Crombé, Philippe; Hansen, Anders J.; Willerslev, Eske; Leonard, Jennifer A.; Götherström, Anders; Pinhasi, Ron; Schuenemann, Verena J.; Hofreiter, Michael; Gilbert, M. Thomas P.; Shapiro, Beth; Larson, Greger; Krause, Johannes; Dalén, Love; Skoglund, Pontus (July 2022). "Grey wolf genomic history reveals a dual ancestry of dogs". Nature. 607 (7918): 313–320. Bibcode:2022Natur.607..313B. doi:10.1038/s41586-022-04824-9. PMC 9279150. PMID 35768506.
  2. ↑ "Amazingly preserved puppy with whiskers, eyelashes, hair and velvety nose intact puzzle scientists". Siberian Times. 25 November 2019. Retrieved 29 November 2019.
  3. 1 2 3 Woodyatt, Amy (27 November 2019). "18,000-year-old frozen puppy leaves scientists baffled". CNN Travel.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Scientists stumped by 18,000-year-old frozen 'dog'". BBC News. 28 November 2019. Retrieved 28 November 2019.
  5. 1 2 3 Sparks, Hannah (27 November 2019). "18,000-year-old puppy stumps scientists: Is it a dog or a wolf?". New York Post. Retrieved 28 November 2019.
  6. ↑ "DNA of pre-historic puppy, found in Yakutia, to be analyzed in Denmark". Tass Russian News Agency. 12 October 2020. Retrieved 7 March 2021.
  7. ↑ Pappas, Stephanie (7 July 2022). "Mummified puppy that died 18,000 years ago was a wolf". Live Science.
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