Monday afternoon’s story of Zhùr, an ancient gray wolf pup, drew interest from 320 scientists and others from around the world who signed up for the talk.
Monday afternoon’s story of Zhùr, an ancient gray wolf pup, drew interest from 320 scientists and others from around the world who signed up for the talk.
It was presented through a video conference hosted by Grant Zazula, an ice age paleontologist with the Yukon government.
Several other scientists who had worked with the Pleistocene carcass or were involved in the research were also part of the video feed, as was Debbie Nagano, a representative of Dawson’s Tr’ondëk Hwech’ïn.
The video conference was the latest in the series of the science talks presented by the Yukon Beringia Interpretive Centre.
Results of the research were published Monday in the Current Biology Magazine.
The pup was named Zhùr, meaning wolf in the Han language.
The 57,000-year-old mummified pup was discovered in the Klondike gold fields by placer miner Neil Loveless in July 2016.
Loveless told the audience as a placer miner, he is no stranger to finding ancient bones from wholly mammoths, steppe bison, ancient horses and such.
But never has he come across the remains of a perfectly mummified animal.
While he was doing some hydraulic mining, he took a walk up the draw they were working at, as he usually does.
Loveless said when he first saw the pup, he thought it was a piece of moss, though upon a closer look he knew it was no piece of moss.
“When you find something like this, it is a totally different ball game,” he said.
Zazula said they suspect the pup was laying alone in its den, with its head resting on its outstretched front paws in typical dog fashion.
It’s likely the den suddenly collapsed, killing the wolf instantly.
It’s likely the remains were frozen underground within weeks, resulting in a perfectly preserved carcass – fur and all.
“It’s a wonderful little wolf pup,” Zazula said. “It’s amazing to have so many people here today who were involved.”
The Yukon paleontologist said having such a well-preserved mummy has amazing powers to shed light on its history.
“When it came out of the permafrost, it looked like it died a couple of weeks ago.”
Using the tools paleontologists use – carbon dating, analyzing isotopes, DNA analysis – it was determined the female pup lived approximately 57,000 years ago.
Judging by the development of its teeth and its size, it was likely around six weeks old and had probably been weened already.
Evidence indicates a substantial part of its diet, and therefore her mom’s diet, came from aquatic sources like fish and perhaps water birds, and not land animals.
The carcass was found in the vicinity of the Klondike River, which has a population of spawning chinook salmon today.
There was no evidence that Zhùr starved to death.
The mummified pup measured 41.7 centimetres (16.4 inches) from the tip of snout to the end of its tail, and weighed 610 grams, or about a 1.25 pounds.
While it has the characteristics of a modern day gray wolf, it is not linked genetically to today’s gray wolves, suggesting there was a period of a regional die-off and replacement of the ancient gray wolves in northern North America.
Genetics show there was an ancient link to gray wolves in Russia and Europe, indicating there was connectivity between Russia and North Amercia with animals moving over the Bering Land Bridge.
So unusual is finding a perfectly preserved mummy of an ancient animal that paleontology professor Julie Meachen of Iowa’s Des Moines University said in her 20 years of studying ice age fossils, Zhùr was the first mummy she has worked with.
Zazula told the audience if they wanted to visit the territory to see Zhùr, it is on display at the Beringia Centre.
“One of the best things of 2020 for me is all this information coming out of the project,” he said.
The project involved academics from several universities in Canada and the U.S.
Zazula said the intent in the post-COVID-19 period is to tour Zhùr through the Yukon communities.
“We really want to make sure people get a chance to see this and have an opportunity to take part,” he said.
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiVGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LndoaXRlaG9yc2VzdGFyLmNvbS9OZXdzL2FuY2llbnQtd29sZi1wdXAtZGlzY292ZXJ5LWx1cmVzLWdsb2JhbC1pbnRlcmVzdNIBAA?oc=5
2020-12-23 20:49:53Z
52781257748384
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar