Its appearance features sharp baby teeth, a velvety soft nose, fluffy fur all over, and the entire dog-like creature is truly adorable. Its name: Dogor. Its age is estimated to be 18,000 years. This is a very precise determination. But how was all this discovered?
An 18,000-year-old dog-like creature was found in the realm of eternal frost
In the summer of 2018, forest hunters found a dog-like carcass buried in the frozen ground along the Ingyigirca River, northeast of the Siberian city of Yakutsk. Researchers from the Applied Ecology Institute of the Northeast Federal University in Russia sent the DNA sample of the carcass to Oxford University, where radiocarbon dating1 used in archaeology determined that the dog-like creature is 18,000 years old and may have lived during the last Ice Age.
The puppy preserved in the Siberian permafrost (permanently frozen soil) was so well conserved that its snout, whiskers, eyelashes, and most of its fur remained in good condition. If you only look at its head – its eyes are closed, the chin carefully resting on the surface in front of it, and lying with slightly stretched paws – you might think that this little dog-like animal is just sleeping.
The researchers have not yet been able to determine the exact cause of death, but it turned out that the dog-like creature was two months old when it died; from its body position, they infer that it was not in danger and that death was not caused by an unexpected event.
Could this be the earliest living dog found?
The puppy’s carcass remained in Russia, but the scientists transported one of its ribs to Sweden’s Paleogenetics Center in Stockholm for further DNA testing. If they succeed in determining where Dogor fits on the evolutionary family tree of canids, it could reveal more information about when dogs and wolves diverged from a common ancestor, and also about when and how dogs were domesticated.
Love Dalén2 and colleague David Stanton3, Swedish researchers, believe this could be the earliest dog. If so, it is incredibly valuable information related to the domestication of wolves. “Only after conducting the tests did we learn the puppy is 18,000 years old, but it seemed as if it had just died recently; the permafrost preserved and conserved it astonishingly well.”
“Amazing… to see, touch, and experience the history of the Earth!”
Genome analysis performed at the Swedish Paleogenetics Center confirmed that Dogor is male, but they were unable to determine whether the 18,000-year-old carcass was a wolf or a dog.
According to Love Dalén, professor of evolutionary genetics: “Usually it can be established with the first DNA tests whether it is a wolf or a dog, but this time it did not yield results.”
Dr. Sergey Fedorov, researcher at the Applied Ecology Institute of the Northeast Federal University in Russia, said: “The center is Europe’s largest DNA bank, holding genetic material of canids from all over the world, but with this first DNA examination, they could not identify the puppy. This is interesting. What if it is a dog? We look forward to receiving the results of further tests.” He added: “Amazing… to see, touch, and experience the history of the Earth!”
“Just imagine that this puppy carcass has been lying underground for 18,000 years in the same position and condition, without anything disturbing it. I carefully removed the dirt and other debris stuck to its body, and a wonderfully preserved coat became visible, which is extremely rare in animals from that period. The only downside is that part of the spine is unprotected, and the ribs are exposed” – commented the Russian researcher.
Scientists still do not know if the puppy was a dog or rather a wolf
Dr. Fjodorov’s words were echoed by the Swedish researchers. “18,000 years old! So far, we have examined the genome twice, but we still cannot say whether it is a wolf or a dog. We already have a lot of data, and with such an amount of data, it should be possible to determine whether it is a wolf or possibly a dog. The problem is that the puppy may come from a population that is the common ancestor of both dogs and wolves. Further DNA tests are required” – said David Stanton, a geneticist at the Stockholm Paleogenetics Center, to CNN.
An evolutionary transition between wolf and dog
“The puppy comes from a very interesting time in the evolution of wolves and dogs, as we do not know exactly when dogs were domesticated, but it probably comes from this period. I think Dogor might be an evolutionary transition between the wolf and the dog” – added Stanton, who, together with his team, plans further testing of genome data to solve the mystery.
“We cannot distinguish it from a modern wolf, a Pleistocene (Ice Age) wolf, or a dog. Due to the temporal difference, it is difficult to define and determine. So it might be a very early modern wolf or a very early dog, or possibly a late Pleistocene wolf. If it turns out to be a dog, I would say this could be the earliest dog that ever lived on Earth.” – added Love Dalén, professor of evolutionary genetics.
Russian scientists named the “puppy” “Dogor”
On November 25, the Swedish Paleogenetics Center announced to the world on their Twitter page: “Genomic analyses show it is a male. We asked our Russian colleagues to name it... Thus, the puppy was named Dogor. Dogor is a Yakut word for friend, which seems really appropriate and also refers to the dog or wolf question.”
Further data is needed to determine the time of domestication
The theories established so far about domestication and exactly when and how it happened are not convincing. According to a 2017 study published in the scientific journal Nature Communications, modern dogs were domesticated from a single wolf population between 20,000 and 40,000 years ago, but this new sample may define a more precise timeframe.
In contrast, a 2016 study by Oxford University published in the American journal Science assumes that dogs were domesticated twice independently from the gray wolf, once in Asia and once in Europe, moving the time interval earlier, to the Paleolithic period. So the question of exactly when dogs were domesticated is not easy to answer.
Scientists are conducting further DNA analysis on Dogor’s rib, hoping to learn more about the puppy’s origin, and perhaps bring them closer to establishing a more precise theory of domestication!
“We think that sometime between 15,000 and 40,000 years ago, the two species separated from each other. From the 15,000-year-old dog fossil from Germany, we know that the species already existed during this period, but the 40,000-year-old Paleolithic fossils still remain a subject of debate” – said Professor David Stanton.
“It seems that dogs were domesticated from extinct ancient wolves, which is why it is such a difficult problem to understand and determine where and when dogs were domesticated. If we want to find the answer, we must study ancient samples.” – concludes the Swedish university professor.
Notes:
1. Carbon isotope dating can be ranked among the greatest discoveries of the 20th century, and it is a radiometric dating method that uses the naturally occurring 14C isotope to determine the age of carbon-containing materials up to about 60,000 years back. In the field of archaeology, this is considered absolute dating. The method can be applied to any material that was ever in close contact with atmospheric carbon, which later became disconnected from this contact. Since its applicable time range covers the most frequently examined period from both geological and archaeological perspectives, it is a widely used method. It helps investigate key questions of human cultural history, as well as environmental changes at the end of the Quaternary period. This technique was developed by Willard Frank Libby and his colleagues in 1949 at the University of Chicago. In 1960, Libby received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the radiocarbon method.
2. Love Dalén, a researcher at the Bioinformatics and Genetics Department of the Swedish Museum of Natural History
3. David Stanton, a researcher at the Bioinformatics and Genetics Department of the Swedish Museum of Natural History.
Sources:
The Siberian Times news portal
The Stockholm Paleogenetics Center Twitter page
Image sources:
Centre of Palaeogenetics Twitter
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