Oldest complete wolf puppy mummy frozen in Yukon permafrost

[FfFfFfFF 58,174]

In the summer of 2016, a gold miner in Canada’s Yukon Territory found an unexpected treasure. While blasting a wall of permafrost with a water cannon to release whatever riches might be found inside, Neil Loveless saw something melting out of the ice. It wasn’t a precious mineral, but the oldest and most complete wolf mummy ever discovered.

Loveless quickly placed the frozen pup in a freezer until paleontologists could have a look. They found that the well-preserved animal was a juvenile female, part of a vanished ecosystem dating to a time when northwestern Canada was home to American mastodons and other Pleistocene megafauna. The local Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in people named the 57,000-year-old pup Zhur, meaning “wolf” in the language of their community.

“In Siberia, preservation like this is fairly common because of the way the permafrost preserves things there, which is way less common in the Yukon, Alaska, and other parts of North America,” says Des Moines University paleontologist Julie Meachen, who is the lead author of a study describing Zhur published today in the journal Current Biology. Much of Zhur has remained intact after tens of thousands of years, from the fur of her coat to the delicate papillae on her tongue.

“To have such extraordinary preservation of a carnivore is a unique situation to look into Ice Age ecosystems from a predator’s point of view,” says McMaster University paleogeneticist Tyler Murchie.

“Zhur is from a time period that isn’t very well-known in the Yukon,” Barnett says. And by examining the remnants of the wolf pup’s DNA, Meachen and colleagues found that this animal documents a group of wolves that no longer exist in the region.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2020/12/57000-year-old-wolf-puppy-found-frozen-in-yukon-permafrost/

[Stupid Oreo 14,669]

my first thought: what does it smell like

[pachinko 10,757]

Is this where covid came from? 

[imnotyourbabe10 6,120]

I'm such an animal lover that I think the lil' thing is adorable and so cool to learn about its history!

[LilMonst3r 5,687]

1 hour ago, FfFfFfFF said:

In the summer of 2016, a gold miner in Canada’s Yukon Territory found an unexpected treasure. While blasting a wall of permafrost with a water cannon to release whatever riches might be found inside, Neil Loveless saw something melting out of the ice. It wasn’t a precious mineral, but the oldest and most complete wolf mummy ever discovered.

Loveless quickly placed the frozen pup in a freezer until paleontologists could have a look. They found that the well-preserved animal was a juvenile female, part of a vanished ecosystem dating to a time when northwestern Canada was home to American mastodons and other Pleistocene megafauna. The local Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in people named the 57,000-year-old pup Zhur, meaning “wolf” in the language of their community.

“In Siberia, preservation like this is fairly common because of the way the permafrost preserves things there, which is way less common in the Yukon, Alaska, and other parts of North America,” says Des Moines University paleontologist Julie Meachen, who is the lead author of a study describing Zhur published today in the journal Current Biology. Much of Zhur has remained intact after tens of thousands of years, from the fur of her coat to the delicate papillae on her tongue.

“To have such extraordinary preservation of a carnivore is a unique situation to look into Ice Age ecosystems from a predator’s point of view,” says McMaster University paleogeneticist Tyler Murchie.

“Zhur is from a time period that isn’t very well-known in the Yukon,” Barnett says. And by examining the remnants of the wolf pup’s DNA, Meachen and colleagues found that this animal documents a group of wolves that no longer exist in the region.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2020/12/57000-year-old-wolf-puppy-found-frozen-in-yukon-permafrost/

Omg I cant wait to see it cloned!