![\"Wolf](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/wolf-dog-with-woolly-rhino-in-stomach.jpg.webp.webp\")
Perfectly preserved canines found in Siberia\u2019s permafrost over. Credit: Centre for Palaeogenetics via X<\/p>\nA 14,000-year-old mummified puppy discovered in Siberia contained the unexpected remains of a woolly rhinoceros in its stomach. Researchers now believe the young carnivore consumed part of one of the last individuals of this extinct species, a discovery described by experts as \u201ccompletely unheard of.\u201d<\/p>\n
The prehistoric canine, unearthed in Tumat, Siberia in 2011, was already remarkable for its pristine preservation. But what lay inside its gut has brought new insight into the final days of the Ice Age megafauna. Scientists have identified undigested tissue that matches the DNA of a woolly rhinoceros, suggesting the puppy may have fed on the ancient beast shortly before both met their ends.<\/p>\n
A Rare Snapshot From The Last Days Of The Woolly Rhino<\/p>\n
The rhino tissue found inside the animal was first believed to come from a cave lion due to its yellowish color. But after sending samples to a Swedish research team with access to a comprehensive mitochondrial DNA database, scientists received a clear match. <\/p>\n
Perfectly preserved canines found in Siberia\u2019s permafrost over. Credit: Centre for Palaeogenetics via X<\/p>\n
According to evolutionary geneticist Love Dal\u00e9n<\/a>, the results were \u201can almost perfect match for woolly rhinoceros.\u201d The tissue was also radiocarbon dated to approximately 14,400 years ago, while the puppy itself has been dated to about 14,000 years age, placing both events near the estimated extinction window of the species. As Dal\u00e9n explained: <\/p>\n \u201cThis puppy must have died very shortly after eating the rhino,\u201d because the tissue was still undigested. <\/p>\n The circumstances suggest a very narrow gap between feeding and death, though the exact cause of the puppy\u2019s demise remains unknown.<\/p>\n How Did A Puppy Get Access To Rhinoceros Meat?<\/p>\n While the DNA analysis and dating provide compelling data, the actual interaction between the animals is harder to explain. A baby canine couldn\u2019t have hunted down a rhinoceros, which would have been similar in size to today\u2019s white rhinos, around six feet tall and weighing up to 8,000 pounds. This has led to several plausible theories, none of which can be confirmed.<\/p>\n Edana Lord<\/a>, a PhD student at the Centre for Palaeogenetics and co-author of the woolly rhino extinction study<\/a>, it\u2019s unlikely the puppy was a direct predator. Dal\u00e9n has suggested the puppy<\/a> could have been part of a wolf pack<\/a> that came across a dead baby rhino. Another possibility, he speculated that:<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t know if it was a wolf, but if it was a wolf cub, maybe it came across a baby rhino that was dead. Or the (adult) wolf ate the baby rhino. Maybe as they were eating it, the mother rhino had her revenge.\u201d<\/p>\n More Icy Canine Remains Expand The Existing Record<\/p>\n The Tumat puppy joins a growing list of Ice Age creatures preserved by Siberia\u2019s permafrost. Over the past decade, several well-preserved prehistoric canines have been recovered from frozen soil, each shedding light on ancient ecosystems. According to All That\u2019s Interesting<\/a>, a 50,000-year-old wolf pup was found in the Yukon alongside a mummified caribou in 2016. Another specimen, found in 2019 and named Dogor, was determined to be around 18,000 years old and is believed to be a wolf-dog hybrid.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 14,000-year-old mummified puppy discovered in Siberia contained the unexpected remains of a woolly rhinoceros in its stomach.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":314327,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[49,48,66,323],"class_list":{"0":"post-314326","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=314326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314326\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/314327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Tissue](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/tissue-of-woolly-rhino.jpg.webp.webp\")
The tissue belonging to the woolly rhinoceros. Credit: Centre for Palaeogenetics via X<\/p>\n