The last meal of the ancient mummified dog surprises scientists

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Scientists have discovered a rare final meal in the womb of a mummified puppy. The dog is believed to be 14,400 (+ or -) years old and was discovered in the frozen soil of Siberia almost 10 years ago. Inside the ancient puppy’s stomach were the well-preserved remains of another animal, which scientists originally believed to be a cave lion, but it is not. Instead, the yellow fur and flesh found in the belly turned out to be something much bigger and “quite unexpected”.

Researcher Edana Lord holds a doctorate. student at the Center for Paleogenetics. She says their findings in the mummified puppy’s stomach were actually from a massive and rare woolly rhino. According to the Center of Palaeogenetics, “one of the last woolly rhinos in the world was eaten by a puppy.” It appears the puppy ate part of the rhino shortly before it died. This is a huge discovery, which has raised many questions about how the remains were stored and how a puppy took a bite out of something so huge.

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Edana Lord says: “As far as we know, it is very unusual to find tissue from another animal retained in the stomach.” She adds, “although some studies have been done on plant remains from stomach contents.” Lord also notes that the frozen ground in Siberia is “essentially like a giant freezer, keeping things cold for thousands of years.” Lord went on to say: “When an animal is buried soon after it has died – for example, if it falls into a crevice – it can become mummified.”

Edana Lord and her colleagues named the mummified puppy Tumat, after the Siberian site where it was found in 2011. “Working on these types of specimens gives us a better understanding of what Ice Age animals looked like. [compared to their modern counterparts]”, she says. So how did the old puppy get the chance to munch on something that was so much bigger than it was? Turns out even researchers don’t know for sure, but they have a few theories. The first has to do with a possible pack of ancient dogs working together to take down the woolly rhino. The second theory involves interference from an early human who may have hunted the beast.

The woolly rhinoceros is an extinct species of rhino that was common throughout Europe and northern Asia during the Pleistocene era. He survived until the end of the last ice age. The rhino was a member of the Pleistocene megafauna and has been studied many times over the years. The new discoveries in the womb of the mummified puppy have given scientists and an incredibly preserved piece of the evolutionary puzzle. Edana Lord notes, “This allows us to ask a whole host of questions regarding their population and evolutionary history.” The interview with Edana Lord was originally conducted by Inverse. You can check out some pictures of the old puppy above and below.

Subjects: The Mummy

Kevin Burwick at Movieweb



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