A 60,000 year-old frozen wolf cub paints a picture of ice age life
The beautifully preserved pup was only seven weeks old when its den collapsed and sealed it in
In July of 2016, a young miner working in the gold fields near Dawson City, Yukon made a startling discovery. While removing layers of permafrost over a gold-bearing creek bottom, he found the mummified remains of an ice-age wolf pup.
The pup was immediately brought to the attention of Grant Zazula, a paleontologist with the Government of Yukon who was astounded by the near-perfect condition of the remains. They proved to be of a seven week old female wolf pup who died about 60,000 years ago when her den collapsed. It is the oldest and best preserved ice-age wolf specimen ever found.
Cultural significance
The pup was given the name Zhùr which means "wolf" in the Hän language of the local Tr'ondëk Hwëch'in people. The pup received an official blessing from the Tr'ondëk Hwëch'in, who regard the wolf as an ancestor. For these people, the pup returned to teach about the past.
Genetic analysis and diet
Zhùr also found its way to Julie Meachen, a vertebrate paleontologist from Des Moines University in Iowa. Meachen was part of a team that conducted a variety of tests, including isotopic measurements and DNA sampling, which revealed the pup is related to ice-age wolves in Europe, and only distantly to present day North American wolves.
This proves there was mixing of wolves across the Bering land bridge.
Meachen was also able to see that the pup was eating salmon, rather than bison or muskox, which might have been expected. This suggests the pup lived her short life in the summer, when salmon would have been more plentiful.
Ice-age remains are often found in the permafrost in Yukon, but they are commonly bones of mammoths, bison and horses. A pristine specimen like Zhùr is very rare.