18,000-year-old Siberian puppy could be world’s oldest domesticated dog

Researchers may have discovered the world’s oldest very good boy.

Dogor, an 18,000-year-old puppy found under the ice in Siberia, could be the world’s oldest domesticated dog.

Dogor, which means “friend” in Yakutian and is the name given by researchers, was found in the summer of 2018 in the permafrost near the Indigirka River, north-east of Yakutsk, Siberia, the world’s coldest city. He was preserved so well that his teeth, fur, nose, eyelashes and whiskers were still in good condition.

While genome analysis has determined Dogor was a male and radiocarbon shows how old he is, DNA analysis hasn’t sussed out this pooch’s species. He could be an early modern wolf, a late ice-age wolf (the last ice age ended about 10,000 years ago) or an early domesticated dog. He might even be a halfway creature from the time when some wolves were undergoing an evolutionary transition into dogs.

Source: 18,000-year-old Siberian puppy could be world’s oldest domesticated dog - New York Daily News