An ice age puppy mummy has been found in the Canadian frozen tundra!  This astonishingly well-preserved wolf pup was found by gold miners near Dawson City in the Yukon.  Initially thought to be a dog, due to it’s easily recognizable paws, tail and canine features, scientists soon realized it was an estimated eight week old wolf pup.  However, radiocarbon testing revealed this was no ordinary wolf.  This wolf mummy is at least 50,000 years old, the limit for radiocarbon dating.  What’s even more amazing is how rare wolf remains are compared to larger animals that once roamed the Klondike region of Canada.  According to paleontologist Grant Zazula, “To our knowledge this is the only mummified ice age wolf ever found in the world.”

Grant Zazula, paleontologist for the Yukon government, also marveled, “The wolf pup looks exactly like a taxidermied little puppy.  It’s got a little tail, hair, paws, eyelids and lips. It’s spectacular.”  It’s skin, muscle, and fur are still intact, and hopefully further testing will reveal what life was like 50,000 years ago for this little pup.  Scientists hope to reconstruct the wolf’s diet based on analysis of the carbon and nitrogen preserved in the fur and bone.  Also ancient DNA could reveal how ice age wolves are related to the modern gray wolf.

It’s fascinating to imagine what happened to this eight week old pup.  It is believed that 50,000 years ago the Yukon was a cold, dry, grassy, wind swept tundra, where now extinct creatures such as the woolly mammoth, saber-tooth cat, and short-faced bear roamed.  Was this little guy out hunting with his pack and something went horribly wrong?  Or at just eight weeks old, did his curiosity about this great big world get the better of him?  Did this wolf pup have human companions?  I have so many questions!  But for now, I just have to wait with the rest of the world to see what this frozen time traveler reveals.  To learn more about this amazing discovery, visit the joint press release by the Yukon government, at Yukon.ca