A scientist at the North-Eastern Federal University in Yakutsk, Russia, performing an autopsy of the remains of a puppy, which died 12,460 years ago and was discovered in the northern Russia region of Yakutia. Credit: AFP

A scientist at the North-Eastern Federal University in Yakutsk, Russia, performing an autopsy of the remains of a puppy, which died 12,460 years ago and was discovered in the northern Russia region of Yakutia.
Credit: AFP

Scientists are probing the remains of two Ice Age puppies found perfectly preserved in Russia’s far northeast region of Yakutia and dating back 12,460 years that could offer clues about the origin of domesticated dogs.

“To find a carnivorous mammal intact with skin, fur and internal organs — this has never happened before in history,” said Sergei Fyodorov, head of exhibitions at the Mammoth Museum of the North-Eastern Federal University in the regional capital of Yakutsk, Agence France-Presse reported Monday.

The mummified dogs were found by hunters searching for mammoth tusks in a riverbank by a deposit of ancient bones in remote Arctic tundra, […]