(C) Photograph in dorsal view showing port-mortem damage to skin at the time of detection and image in ventral view (below) showing a furless abdomen and external female organs, there is a bar scale 10 cm. (D) Large carbon and nitrogen isotopes of wolf Zhùr compared with other isotope data derived from wolves (black circles).
Julie Meachen et al.
“It is the most complete wolf sample ever found since the ice age,” said lead author Julie Meachen, associate professor of Anatomy at Des Moines University in Iowa. “All the soft stuff, hair, skin, even her little nose is still there. She’s just perfect. And that’s very rare.” “We can learn just more from an animal with skin and fur and limbs than we can with just bones,” said Meachen. “It’s amazing that we get all these details from her when she lived so long ago. ” Different types of analysis have been performed, according to Living Science, including radiocarbon dating, DNA sampling, and measurement of levels of different versions, or isotopes, of oxygen. X-rays of the teeth and bones showed the pup was about seven weeks old when she died. “Based on the analysis of the chemical components of the hair and in other cigarettes, we were able to find out what her final diet was,” Zazula said. And that last meal wasn’t bison or musk ox – most likely fish, salmon.
Original release of the gray wolf subspecies
Tommyknocker
The importance of discovery
After reconstructing the mitochondrial genome of the pup, it was discovered that the wolf is not related to wolves found in North America today. Instead, the scientists found similar objects in the genetic shape of the puppy with both Beringian wolves, an extinct group in ancient Yukon and Alaska, and Russian gray wolves. “We learned that it is very closely related to ice-age wolves in Europe,” said Grant Zazula, Yukon paleontologist. “And that’s very interesting because that tells us that there was a huge population change in North America with gray wolves at the end of the ice age.” The puppy’s relationship with both North Americans and Eurasia is a testament to an ancient continental mix over the Bering Land Bridge that once connected Alaska and Russia, the researchers wrote in their report published in the journal Current Biology on 21 December 2020.
The importance of discovery
Not only does the wolf cub have scientific significance but it is also culturally important to the First Nation at Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in in the Yukon. “We are connected to this wolf puppy,” said Debbie Nagano, heritage director of the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in and a member of the First Nation wolf clan. Shortly after its first discovery, the spiny carcass of the wolf cub was returned to Dawson City for a special blessing ceremony by First Nations elders and was named. The little female wolf puppy has been named Zhùr, which means “wolf” in the local vernacular Hän language. The naming ceremony is also a way of showing respect, not only to the wolf but to the people of the First Nations. “There’s a connection to it. We don’t want it to just be manipulated by an idea, ‘It’s just an artifact,'” Nagano said. “We really want him to be able to have the respect behind him as well. Not by the way, he has physical respect; he needs to be spiritually respected as well.” Nagano says Zhúr’s discovery has helped improve the relations between the First Nation and scientists, and also with the government and the mining community. “This wolf puppy brings us together in such a good way that we can all learn from him,” she said. “That part is a great way to be grateful for this wolf puppy.”