About four years ago, a gold miner digging in the Canadian province of Yukon unearthed the mummy of a female wolf. It has been found perfectly preserved in permafrost since the Last Glacial Period, around 57,000 years ago.
The mummy helped the researchers reveal further information about this animal's diet, age, and how it died. In their study, they used radiocarbon dating and CT scan to examine the wolf's skeleton and teeth. They also took DNA samples and measured the levels of oxygen isotopes. The findings were published in the latest issue of the journal Current Biology.
In a report published by the Live Science website, lead author Julie Meachen, an associate professor of anatomy at Des Moines University in Iowa, said: "She is the most complete wolf specimen ever found from the ice age. All her soft tissue, her hair, her skin, even her little nose is still there. She's just complete. And that is really rare."
"The study also showed that the animal was only 7 weeks old when she met her untimely end," she added. This mummy was particularly important to researchers because it was uncovered in North America.
"These types of specimens can be fairly common in Siberia, but they are much harder to get to. This sample provided a rare opportunity to see where North American wolves originated," Meachen explained.
Meachen and colleagues reconstructed the wolf's mitochondrial genome — the genome found in the cells' energy-making structures called mitochondria that gets passed along the maternal line — finding similarities with Beringian wolves, an extinct group that lived in ancient Yukon and Alaska. The wolf's relation to individuals from both North America and Eurasia is proof of ancient continental mixing across the Bering Land Bridge, an ancient land bridge that once connected Alaska and Russia.
