Scientists of Ancient Mummified Dog

Scientists have discovered a rare last meal in the stomach of a mummified puppy. The horn is thought to be 14,400 (+ or -) years old and was discovered in the frozen ground of Siberia almost 10 years ago. Inside the belly of the old puppy sat the well-preserved remains of another animal, which scientists originally thought were a caveman, but that is not the case. Instead, the yellow fur and flesh found in the abdomen proved that it was something much larger and “quite unexpected.”

Researcher Edana Lord, is a Ph.D. student at the Center for Palaeogenetics. She says her findings in the belly of the mummified puppy are actually from a massive and rare woolly rhino. According to the Center of Palaeogenetics, “one of the last surviving woolly rhinos in the world was eaten by a puppy.” It turns out that the puppy ate part of the rhino shortly before his death. This is an enormous discovery, which has raised many questions about how the remains were preserved and how a puppy got a bite of something so enormous.

RELATED: Tom Cruise told one mama co-star he’s single, but that soon changed

Edana Lord says, “As far as we know, it is very unusual to find tissue from another animal stored in the stomach.” She adds, “although some research has been done on plant debris 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, “If an animal is buried soon after it dies – for example, if it falls into a crevice – it can be mummified.”

Edana Lord and her colleagues named the mummified puppy Tumat, after the Siberian site where it was found back in 2011. “Working on these types of specimens gives us a better understanding of what the 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 a lot bigger than it was? As it turns out, the researchers did not even know for sure, but they have a few theories. The first of which has to do with a possible pack of old dogs working together to take down the woolly rhino.The second theory is about the interference of an early human who may have hunted the animal.

The woolly rhino is an extinct species of rhinoceros that was common throughout Europe and northern Asia during the Pleistocene. It survived until the end of the last glacial period. The rhino was a member of the Pleistocene megafauna and it has been studied several times over the years. The new findings inside the belly of the mummified puppy have given scientists and incredibly preserved piece of the evolutionary puzzle. Edana Lord notes, “This allows us to ask a whole host of questions about 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.

Topics: The Mummy