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Forum member's first pet found


samhexum
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Was it William M's, Marylander1940's, or one of the other fossils members of a certain age around here? ?:cool:?

 

A mummified baby wolf is drawing oohs and aahs from researchers.

 

The nearly perfectly intact creature, believed to be a staggering 57,000 years old, was discovered by a gold prospector in the Yukon Territory, noted the Dec. 21 issue of Current Biology.

 

The animal was named Zhur, meaning “wolf” in the indigenous Hän language.

 

“She’s the most complete wolf mummy that has ever been found,” explained Julie Meachen, a paleontology professor at Des Moines University. “The animal has to die in a permafrost location, where the ground is frozen all the time, and they have to get buried very quickly, like any other fossilization process.”

 

Based on a detailed forensic analysis, Zhur was approximately 7 weeks old at the time of her death. Since modern wolves in the area often bear cubs in early summer, the pup likely died in late July.

 

During Zhur’s brief lifespan in the later stages of the Pleistocene epoch, which was marked by a lengthy ice age, sea levels were markedly lower than today. A region of dry land connected Canada to Siberia which allowed animals to roam between continents, according to Current Biology.

 

Zhur’s breed is the likely ancestor of nearly every wolf species, with the probable exception of the Himalayan wolf, noted Ars Technica.

 

That conclusion was reached by Meachen and her team which noted that Zhur wasn’t a direct ancestor of present-day Klondike wolves.

 

At some point during the past 56,000 years, the Klondike wolf population either died out or abandoned the area and was replaced by a species less closely related to Zhur.

 

Another remarkable discovery of the specimen was that the baby wolf seemingly enjoyed a fish-rich diet.

 

Modern wolf puppies start eating solid foods near the 6-week-old mark. It is believed that Zhur’s mother had probably weaned her pups from milk and started bringing them solid food.

 

“Normally, when you think of wolves in the Ice Age, you think of them eating bison or musk oxen or other large animals on land,” explained Meachen. “One thing that surprised us was that she was eating aquatic resources, particularly salmon.”

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