...for a living dog is better than a dead lion.
Ecclesiastes 9:4
"The hunters searching for mammoth tusks were drawn to the steep riverbank by a deposit of ancient bones. To their astonishment, they discovered an Ice Age puppy's snout peeking out from the permafrost.Five years later, a pair of puppies perfectly preserved in Russia's far northeast region of Yakutia and dating back 12,460 years has mobilised scientists across the world.
"To find a carnivorous mammal intact with skin, fur and internal organs—this has never happened before in history," said Sergei Fyodorov,...
They most likely come from the same litter, said Fyodorov.
Last week he oversaw the removal of the second puppy's remarkably well-preserved brain—"the first in the world", he said.
"Puppies are very rare, because they have thin bones and delicate skulls," he said.
The duo have been named the Tumat Dog, after the nearest village to the site.
Fyodorov said a preliminary look at the mammoth remains also found at the dig suggested some had been butchered and burned, hinting at the presence of humans. It remains to be seen, however, whether the puppies were domesticated or wild.
The second puppy's preserved brain will be compared with that of modern dogs and wolves. Parasites found on its body will be analysed, as will the contents of its stomach, which Fyodorov is particularly excited about.
"When we opened it, we were very surprised. The second puppy's stomach is mostly full of twigs and grass," he said, wondering if perhaps the animals were not exclusively carnivorous or whether they started eating grass after they were trapped by a mudslide and began to starve.
"Thus far, the lineages of wolves that likely gave rise to dogs have not yet been discovered and it's possible that these puppies could be on that lineage, which would be very exciting," said evolutionary biologist Greger Larson of University of Oxford, one of the scientists behind a collaborative project aimed at finding out when and where dogs became the first domesticated animals." Phys.org
The LESSON: When the evolutionary biologist speaks of the lineage that gave rise to dogs from wolves, he isn't talking about Darwinian MACRO-EVOLUTION. Dogs are descended from wolves because of a LOSS of genetic information. In other words the OPPOSITE of Evolution.
