translated from Spanish: They discover a 18000-year-old frozen puppy in Siberia and bewilder scientists

Photograph/Sergey Fedorov
Michoacan, Morelia.- While the DNA sequence has not been successful in determining the species, scientists say it could mean that the sample represents an evolutionary link between wolves and modern dogs, the BBC reported.
An ancient Siberian cub was found intact just as he died, when he was only two months old, with his fur, nose and teeth still in full in the Russian region, the BBC reported.
Confusion arose among investigators as they tried to determine whether the 18,000-year-old cub, found in Siberia, is a dog or a wolf.
While the DNA sequence has not been successful in determining the species, scientists say it could mean that the sample represents an evolutionary link between wolves and modern dogs.
It was with the help of radiocarbon dating that the age of the puppy could be determined along with details such as how old he was when he died and how long he had been frozen. Another scientific method known as genome analysis showed that the cub was male.
“The problem of DNA sequencing meant that the animal could come from a population that is a common ancestor of dogs and wolves,” CNN said citing researcher Dave Stanton of the Swedish Center for Paleogenetics.
He added that the research center already has a lot of data and, with that amount of data, one can tell if it was one or the other.
Meanwhile, another researcher at the center, Love Dalen, conducted a survey on Twitter and asked if the specimen is a wolf cub or “possibly the oldest dog ever found.”
The puppy has been called “Dogor”, which means “friend” in the Yakut language. Scientists will continue with DNA sequencing to see what revelations they might show regarding the evolution of dogs.
Modern dogs are believed to be wolf-descended, however, it has been debated whether the dogs were domesticated. THE BBC cited a study published in 2017 suggesting that domestication could have occurred 20,000 to 40,000 years ago.
Source: The Indian Express

Original source in Spanish