57,000-year-old wolf pup discovered in the Yukon

 

In 2016, the mummified remains of a wolf pup were found in melting permafrost in the Yukon. The remains were very complete, but it seemed that they likely came from a very ancient form of wolf.

A few weeks ago, a detailed analysis of this wolf pup's molecular biology was published in Current Biology.  Radiocarbon dating suggested that the pup, which was estimated to have been between six and seven weeks old when she died, lived greater than 50,000 years ago. More in depth isotopic analysis revealed her exact age to be between 56,000 and 57,000 years old.

Ancient mitochondrial DNA was extracted and compared to ancient and modern gray wolf remains. She was found to be basal to all extant wolves and had a strong relationship to Pleistocene Russian and Beringian wolves, which would have been expected from her location 

The researchers were able to determine through isotopic analysis that her diet and that of her mother from which she had suckled most of her life came from marine sources.

So this ancient wolf was living very much like the now famous wolves of coastal British Columbia that also live almost exclusively on fish, shellfish, and marine mammals.  A great deal of speculation exists about these wolves potentially evolving into a marine mammal, but the discovery that this ancient wolf and the population of which she was a part shows that wolves have lived on very similar resources before. The wolves of the British Columbia coast are not the first of their kind to live this way. They have merely adopted it in parallel from a now extinct population..

One point of interest for me is the age of the wolf is estimated to have been between 56,000 and 57,000 years ago. The most recent analysis of the gray wolf and coyote genomes reveals that coyotes split from gray wolves around 50,000 years ago, which might suggest that this animal might also be basal to coyotes.

The researchers looked at only her mitochondrial DNA, and they did not compare her to coyotes. Coyotes have an unusual mitochondrial DNA heritage, which might have come from an introgression from a dhole-like ancestor.

This discovery raises many interesting questions. 

It is not impossible for full genomes to be extracted from such old specimens. A 700,000-year-old horse had its full genome sequenced, and the results had amazing implications for our understanding of horse evolution. 

This wolf pup could very well have that same potential. I hope that more work is performed on its molecular evolution. It could very well tell us a very interesting story.