Meet “Dogor”: an 18,000 year-old puppy that was discovered in the Siberian permafrost. He’s so well preserved that his nose and whiskers are still mostly intact, as you can tell from the photo above.
Dogor, which means “friend” in the local Yakut language where he was found, is believed to have lived around the time that dogs were first domesticated.
DNA sequencing has not been able to determine whether Dogor is a wolf or a dog and it’s possible that he represents a common ancestor of both species.
Watch the video below to learn more about this incredible discovery and what it might teach us about how dogs became “man’s best friend”:
This isn’t the first ancient canine discovered in the Siberian permafrost. Check out this perfectly preserved 32,000-year-old giant wolf head discovered in Siberia’s Yakutia region in the summer of 2018.
This discovery marked the first ever partial carcass of an adult Pleistocene steppe wolf — an extinct lineage distinct from modern wolves.
