Two Ice Age ‘puppies' weren't exactly dogs

14,000-year-old mummified ‘puppies' weren't dogs at all, new research shows

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5 days ago

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14,000-year-old mummified ‘puppies' weren't dogs at all, new research shows

Sign up for CNN's Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more. Two well-preserved ice age 'puppies' found in Northern Siberia may not be dogs at all, according to new research. Still covered in fur and naturally preserved in ice for thousands of years, the 'Tumat Puppies,' as they are known, contain hints of a last meal in their stomachs, including meat from a woolly rhinoceros and feathers from a small bird called a wagtail. Previously thought to be early domesticated dogs or tamed wolves living near humans, the animals' remains were found near woolly mammoth bones that had been burned and cut by humans, suggesting the canids lived near a site where humans butchered mammoths. By analyzing genetic data from the gut contents and chemical signatures in the bones, teeth and soft tissue, researchers now think the animals were 2-month-old wolf pups that show no evidence of interacting with people, according to findings published Thursday in the journal Quaternary Research. Neither of the mummified wolf cubs, believed to be sisters, show signs of having been attacked or injured, indicating that they died suddenly when their underground den collapsed and trapped them inside more than 14,000 years ago. The den collapse may have been triggered by a landslide, according to the study. The wealth of data from the remains is shedding light on the everyday life of ice age animals, including how they ate, which is similar to the habits of modern wolves. 'It was incredible to find two sisters from this era so well preserved, but even more incredible that we can now tell so much of their story, down to the last meal that they ate,' wrote lead study author Anne Kathrine Wiborg Runge, formerly a doctoral student at the University of York and the University of Copenhagen, in a statement. 'Whilst many will be disappointed that these animals are almost certainly wolves and not early domesticated dogs, they have helped us get closer to understanding the environment at the time, how these animals lived, and how remarkably similar wolves from more than 14,000 years ago are to modern day wolves.' The multitude of research on these pups and other specimens also illustrates how difficult it is to prove when dogs, widely regarded as the first domesticated animal, became a part of human society. Trapped in thawing permafrost, the Tumat Puppies were discovered separately at the Syalakh site, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) from the nearest village of Tumat — one in 2011 and the other in 2015. They are approximately 14,046 to 14,965 years old. Hair, skin, claws and entire stomach contents can survive eons under the right conditions, said study coauthor Dr. Nathan Wales, senior lecturer in archaeology at the University of York in England. 'The most surprising thing to me is that the archaeologists managed to discover the second Tumat Puppy several years after the first was found,' Runge told CNN. 'It is very rare to find two specimens that are so well preserved and then they turn out to be siblings/littermates. It's extraordinary.' Like modern wolves, the pups ate both meat and plants. Though a woolly rhinoceros would be rather large prey for wolves to hunt, the piece of woolly rhino skin in one pup's stomach is proof of the canids' diet. The rhino skin, bearing blond fur, was only partially digested, suggesting the pups were resting in their den and died shortly after their last meal, Runge said. The color of the woolly rhino fur is consistent with that of a calf, based on previous research of a juvenile woolly rhino specimen found in the permafrost. Adult woolly rhinos likely had darker fur. The pack of adult wolves hunted the calf and brought it back to the den to feed the pups, according to the study authors. 'The hunting of an animal as large as a wooly rhinoceros, even a baby one, suggests that these wolves are perhaps bigger than the wolves we see today,' Wales wrote in a statement. The researchers also analyzed tiny plant remains fossilizing in the cubs' stomachs, revealing that the wolves lived in a dry, somewhat mild environment that could support diverse vegetation including prairie grasses, willows and shrub leaves. In addition to eating solid food, the pups were likely still nursing milk from their mother, according to the researchers. What scientists didn't find was evidence that mammoths were part of the cubs' diet, meaning it was unlikely that humans at the site were feeding the canids. Is it possible, though, that people shared woolly rhino meat with the cubs? That's something Wales considered, but now he believes the evidence points in the other direction. 'We know that modern wolves will hunt large prey like elk, moose and musk ox, and anyone who watches animal documentaries will know wolves tend to single out juvenile or weaker individuals when they hunt,' Wales wrote in an email. 'I lean toward the interpretation that the Tumat Puppies were fed part of a juvenile wooly rhino (by adult wolves).' The origin of the woolly rhino meat is impossible to pinpoint — the wolf pack could have hunted the calf or scavenged it from a carcass or even a butchering site — but given the age of the cubs and the fact that the den collapsed on them, it seems less likely that humans fed them directly, Runge said. That the cubs were being reared in a den and fed by their pack, similarly to how wolves breed and raise their young today, further suggests that the Tumat Puppies were wolves rather than dogs, Wales said. Painting a broader picture of ice age wolves is difficult because no written sources or cave art depicting them have been found, so it is unclear how wolf packs and ancient humans would have interacted, Runge said. 'We have to try to account for our own biases and preconceived notions based on human-wolf interactions today,' she wrote. 'And then we have to be okay with knowing we'll never be able to answer some of the questions.' Researchers are still trying to understand how domesticated dogs became companions to humans. One hypothesis is that wolves lived near humans and scavenged their food. But the domestication process would take generations and require humans to tolerate this behavior. Another hypothesis is that humans actively captured and hand-raised wolves, causing some of them to become isolated from wild populations, resulting in early dogs. Previous DNA tests on the cubs suggested they could have come from a now extinct population of wolves that eventually died out — and a population that did not act as a genetic bridge to modern dogs. 'When we're talking about the origins of dogs, we're talking about the very first domesticated animal,' Wales said. 'And for that reason, scientists have to have really solid evidence to make claims of early dogs.' All the evidence the authors of the new study found was compatible with the wolves living on their own, Wales said. 'Today, litters are often larger than two, and it is possible that the Tumat Puppies had siblings that escaped (the same) fate,' he said. 'There may also be more cubs hidden in the permafrost or lost to erosion.' Pinpointing where and when dogs were domesticated is still something of a holy grail in archaeology, evolutionary biology and ancient DNA research, said Dr. Linus Girdland-Flink, a lecturer in biomolecular archaeology at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland. Though Girdland-Flink's research is on ancient wolves and dogs, he was not involved in the new study. But determining whether ancient remains like the Tumat Puppies are early domestic dogs, wild wolves, scavengers or tamed individuals isn't straightforward because of the fragmented archaeological record, he said. No one piece of evidence can lead to a definitive answer. And it's even harder to do a comparison involving cubs because adult traits help distinguish between wild wolves and domesticated dogs. 'Instead, we have to bring together different lines of proxy evidence — archaeological, morphological, genetic, ecological — and think about how they all fit,' Girdland-Flink wrote in an email. 'So, I really welcome this new multi-disciplinary reanalysis of the Tumat puppies.' Girdland-Flink wasn't surprised the cubs weren't associated with the mammoth butchering site — an absence of evidence that matters. And combined with the lack of strong genetic ties to domestic dogs, he agreed the cubs must have come from a wolf population that did not live with humans.

Yahoo

5 days ago

Yahoo

14,000-year-old mummified ‘puppies' weren't dogs at all, new research shows

Sign up for CNN's Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more. Two well-preserved ice age 'puppies' found in Northern Siberia may not be dogs at all, according to new research. Still covered in fur and naturally preserved in ice for thousands of years, the 'Tumat Puppies,' as they are known, contain hints of a last meal in their stomachs, including meat from a woolly rhinoceros and feathers from a small bird called a wagtail. Previously thought to be early domesticated dogs or tamed wolves living near humans, the animals' remains were found near woolly mammoth bones that had been burned and cut by humans, suggesting the canids lived near a site where humans butchered mammoths. By analyzing genetic data from the gut contents and chemical signatures in the bones, teeth and soft tissue, researchers now think the animals were 2-month-old wolf pups that show no evidence of interacting with people, according to findings published Thursday in the journal Quaternary Research. Neither of the mummified wolf cubs, believed to be sisters, show signs of having been attacked or injured, indicating that they died suddenly when their underground den collapsed and trapped them inside more than 14,000 years ago. The den collapse may have been triggered by a landslide, according to the study. The wealth of data from the remains is shedding light on the everyday life of ice age animals, including how they ate, which is similar to the habits of modern wolves. 'It was incredible to find two sisters from this era so well preserved, but even more incredible that we can now tell so much of their story, down to the last meal that they ate,' wrote lead study author Anne Kathrine Wiborg Runge, formerly a doctoral student at the University of York and the University of Copenhagen, in a statement. 'Whilst many will be disappointed that these animals are almost certainly wolves and not early domesticated dogs, they have helped us get closer to understanding the environment at the time, how these animals lived, and how remarkably similar wolves from more than 14,000 years ago are to modern day wolves.' The multitude of research on these pups and other specimens also illustrates how difficult it is to prove when dogs, widely regarded as the first domesticated animal, became a part of human society. Trapped in thawing permafrost, the Tumat Puppies were discovered separately at the Syalakh site, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) from the nearest village of Tumat — one in 2011 and the other in 2015. They are approximately 14,046 to 14,965 years old. Hair, skin, claws and entire stomach contents can survive eons under the right conditions, said study coauthor Dr. Nathan Wales, senior lecturer in archaeology at the University of York in England. 'The most surprising thing to me is that the archaeologists managed to discover the second Tumat Puppy several years after the first was found,' Runge told CNN. 'It is very rare to find two specimens that are so well preserved and then they turn out to be siblings/littermates. It's extraordinary.' Like modern wolves, the pups ate both meat and plants. Though a woolly rhinoceros would be rather large prey for wolves to hunt, the piece of woolly rhino skin in one pup's stomach is proof of the canids' diet. The rhino skin, bearing blond fur, was only partially digested, suggesting the pups were resting in their den and died shortly after their last meal, Runge said. The color of the woolly rhino fur is consistent with that of a calf, based on previous research of a juvenile woolly rhino specimen found in the permafrost. Adult woolly rhinos likely had darker fur. The pack of adult wolves hunted the calf and brought it back to the den to feed the pups, according to the study authors. 'The hunting of an animal as large as a wooly rhinoceros, even a baby one, suggests that these wolves are perhaps bigger than the wolves we see today,' Wales wrote in a statement. The researchers also analyzed tiny plant remains fossilizing in the cubs' stomachs, revealing that the wolves lived in a dry, somewhat mild environment that could support diverse vegetation including prairie grasses, willows and shrub leaves. In addition to eating solid food, the pups were likely still nursing milk from their mother, according to the researchers. What scientists didn't find was evidence that mammoths were part of the cubs' diet, meaning it was unlikely that humans at the site were feeding the canids. Is it possible, though, that people shared woolly rhino meat with the cubs? That's something Wales considered, but now he believes the evidence points in the other direction. 'We know that modern wolves will hunt large prey like elk, moose and musk ox, and anyone who watches animal documentaries will know wolves tend to single out juvenile or weaker individuals when they hunt,' Wales wrote in an email. 'I lean toward the interpretation that the Tumat Puppies were fed part of a juvenile wooly rhino (by adult wolves).' The origin of the woolly rhino meat is impossible to pinpoint — the wolf pack could have hunted the calf or scavenged it from a carcass or even a butchering site — but given the age of the cubs and the fact that the den collapsed on them, it seems less likely that humans fed them directly, Runge said. That the cubs were being reared in a den and fed by their pack, similarly to how wolves breed and raise their young today, further suggests that the Tumat Puppies were wolves rather than dogs, Wales said. Painting a broader picture of ice age wolves is difficult because no written sources or cave art depicting them have been found, so it is unclear how wolf packs and ancient humans would have interacted, Runge said. 'We have to try to account for our own biases and preconceived notions based on human-wolf interactions today,' she wrote. 'And then we have to be okay with knowing we'll never be able to answer some of the questions.' Researchers are still trying to understand how domesticated dogs became companions to humans. One hypothesis is that wolves lived near humans and scavenged their food. But the domestication process would take generations and require humans to tolerate this behavior. Another hypothesis is that humans actively captured and hand-raised wolves, causing some of them to become isolated from wild populations, resulting in early dogs. Previous DNA tests on the cubs suggested they could have come from a now extinct population of wolves that eventually died out — and a population that did not act as a genetic bridge to modern dogs. 'When we're talking about the origins of dogs, we're talking about the very first domesticated animal,' Wales said. 'And for that reason, scientists have to have really solid evidence to make claims of early dogs.' All the evidence the authors of the new study found was compatible with the wolves living on their own, Wales said. 'Today, litters are often larger than two, and it is possible that the Tumat Puppies had siblings that escaped (the same) fate,' he said. 'There may also be more cubs hidden in the permafrost or lost to erosion.' Pinpointing where and when dogs were domesticated is still something of a holy grail in archaeology, evolutionary biology and ancient DNA research, said Dr. Linus Girdland-Flink, a lecturer in biomolecular archaeology at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland. Though Girdland-Flink's research is on ancient wolves and dogs, he was not involved in the new study. But determining whether ancient remains like the Tumat Puppies are early domestic dogs, wild wolves, scavengers or tamed individuals isn't straightforward because of the fragmented archaeological record, he said. No one piece of evidence can lead to a definitive answer. And it's even harder to do a comparison involving cubs because adult traits help distinguish between wild wolves and domesticated dogs. 'Instead, we have to bring together different lines of proxy evidence — archaeological, morphological, genetic, ecological — and think about how they all fit,' Girdland-Flink wrote in an email. 'So, I really welcome this new multi-disciplinary reanalysis of the Tumat puppies.' Girdland-Flink wasn't surprised the cubs weren't associated with the mammoth butchering site — an absence of evidence that matters. And combined with the lack of strong genetic ties to domestic dogs, he agreed the cubs must have come from a wolf population that did not live with humans.

Pesticides, antibiotics, animal medicines: the chemical cocktail seeping into our rivers

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5 days ago

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Pesticides, antibiotics, animal medicines: the chemical cocktail seeping into our rivers

Rivers carry more than just water through Britain's landscapes. A hidden cocktail of chemicals seeps out of farmland, passes undetected through sewage treatment works, and drains off the roads into the country's rivers. Normally these chemicals flow through unreported, silently restructuring ecosystems as they go, but now, UK scientists are building a map of what lies within – and the damage it may be causing. Trailing down the centre of Britain is one river whose chemical makeup scientists know better than any other. The Foss threads its way through North Yorkshire's forestry plantations, patchworked arable land and small hamlets, before descending into the city of York, passing roads and car parks, gardens replacing farmland. Along the course of its 20-mile (32km) length, the chemical fingerprints of modern life accumulate. 'The Foss is the river that we understand the most,' says Prof Alistair Boxall from the University of York, who has been leading the research across Yorkshire's rivers. He leads the Ecomix research project which studies 10 rivers across the region, developing ways to examine these chemicals in greater depth than ever before. 'This is the chemical pulse of Yorkshire water,' he says, and the findings from the water here are likely to be replicated across the country. 'People are surprised. They typically think of plastics and sewage. People don't make the connection between the chemicals we use and the environment.' People are surprised … they don't make the connection between the chemicals we use and the environment Prof Alistair Boxall The story these rivers are telling is worrying, says Boxall. Among the thousands of chemicals detected was the tyre additive 6PPD-quinone, which has been linked with mass salmon die-offs in the US. In urban sites across Sheffield, Leeds and Wakefield it was found in about three-quarters of samples. Fungicides and herbicides were among the most detected chemicals. About 500 pesticides – which includes insecticides, fungicides and herbicides – are approved for use in Europe, and 600 are greenlit for veterinary use on livestock and pets. Research has shown antihistamine levels in the water rise when hay fever is bad – one of many pharmaceuticals that end up in rivers after being flushed down the toilet. Monitoring the Foss started in Stillington Mill, in the back garden of a former headteacher. He is one of the volunteers who made this research possible – either by taking samples or allowing monitoring to be done on their land. This spot is about 10 miles from the source of the Foss. Fields of wheat and oilseed rape back on to the water from the other side of the river. Three thousand chemicals were detected here (of which 40% are likely to occur naturally). In the targeted analysis scientists identified 40 chemicals including livestock medicines, pharmaceuticals, UV filters, fungicides and herbicides. In total they were looking for 52 chemicals (excluding metals) and found 44 across the three sampling sites on the Foss. They chose to focus on these chemicals because they are known for toxicity and potential harm to aquatic organisms. By the time it reaches York city centre – about another 10 miles away – an additional 1,000 chemicals have been added to the river, including household chemicals such as antibiotics and cosmetics as the river passes from agricultural areas into villages and towns. On the outskirts of York at New Earswick, Boxall documented the second highest level of paracetamol in the water ever measured in Europe, after a sewage system failure. It was 1,000 times the normal level. In Boxall's lab, a set of creatures he calls 'little beasties' live in fish tanks – a tiny menagerie including duck mussels, swan mussels, ramshorn snails, bloodworms and leeches collected in the ponds around campus. These are species commonly found in UK rivers. Twelve cultures of cyanobacteria – blue-green algae – are siphoned around, each a slightly different shade of green. 'Algae are the base of the food chain,' he says. Here, the invertebrates and algae are exposed to different chemicals and scientists are monitoring the effects. This is the other focus of the Ecomix research: working to understand the effects chemicals are having on the ecology of British rivers. One in 10 freshwater and wetland species in England is threatened with extinction. Boxall believes chemical pollution could be as bad for river ecosystems as sewage spills, which regularly make headlines. Researchers have found that chemical pollution makes a 'significant' contribution to the decline of fish and other aquatic organisms, one that is often missed by regulators. Once these chemicals get into the environment it's very hard to do anything about them Rob Collins, the Rivers Trust More than 350,000 chemicals are registered for production and use, with about 2,000 new ones added each year. They are probably having a range of unknown negative effects on the ecology of our rivers – changing organisms' behaviour and physiology. Chemicals have been shown to have a diverse impact on fish, including their reproduction, social interactions and feeding behaviour. Studies suggest ibuprofen can affect fish hatching, the anti-inflammatory diclofenac affects fish livers, and antidepressants have been linked to a range of behavioural changes. Salmon exposed to anti-anxiety medication have been shown to take more risks, and some flea treatments like imidacloprid are toxic to invertebrates such as mayflies and dragonflies. 'You've effectively got a situation where some chemicals are hitting the base of the food web, others are hitting the invertebrates, and you've got other chemicals hitting the fish,' says Boxall. The Ecomix study is far more comprehensive than chemical modelling by the Environment Agency, which focuses mainly on 'grab samples', or monthly monitoring at best. Boxall's study looked at 19 sites across 10 rivers over a year of continuous monitoring, during which 20,000 samples were collected. 'The Environment Agency doesn't have the resources to tackle this issue well enough,' said Rob Collins from the Rivers Trust, who was not involved in the research. He added that controlling these chemicals at source was key: 'It is a societal challenge to tackle this problem – we are all involved. We also need to see much stronger government regulation with more hazardous chemicals. 'Once these chemicals get into the environment it's very hard to do anything about them. For example, Pfas – known as 'forever chemicals' – can persist in the environment for more than 1,000 years.' Related: 'Rivers you think are pristine are not': how drug pollution flooded the UK's waterways – and put human health at risk Richard Hunt was one of a dozen citizen scientists who has made this research possible. The results were 'sobering', said Hunt, who took a weekly sample in the centre of York. His was among the sites with the highest level of chemicals – as expected in an urban area. UV filters, fire retardants, de-wormers, DEET and cocaine were among the things swirling around in the water. 'I was gobsmacked by the number of chemicals,' says Hunt. 'If people were instructed on how they could help, they would.' The holy grail for addressing chemical pollution is a constant monitoring system, reporting in real time, says Boxall. Having live updates would alert authorities to possible pollution issues so they could respond faster, although Environment Agency staff have been told to ignore low-impact pollution events because the body does not have the resources to investigate. 'Chemicals are important for society,' says Boxall. 'We benefit from them, but we need to reduce their environmental harm.' Hunt points out that the wealth of his city came from its two rivers – the Ouse and its tributary, the Foss. Understanding what chemicals are flowing through them and working out what we can do to clean it up would be to repay adebt of gratitude. 'York wouldn't be nearly as healthy and successful if not for the rivers. We need to have more respect for them.' Find more age of extinction coverage here, and follow the biodiversity reporters Phoebe Weston and Patrick Greenfield in the Guardian app for more nature coverage

Two Ice Age ‘puppies' weren't exactly dogs

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14,000-year-old mummified ‘puppies' weren't dogs at all, new research shows

14,000-year-old mummified ‘puppies' weren't dogs at all, new research shows

Pesticides, antibiotics, animal medicines: the chemical cocktail seeping into our rivers

Two Ice Age ‘puppies' weren't exactly dogs

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14,000-year-old mummified ‘puppies' weren't dogs at all, new research shows

14,000-year-old mummified ‘puppies' weren't dogs at all, new research shows

Pesticides, antibiotics, animal medicines: the chemical cocktail seeping into our rivers

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