Photo: Svetlana PAVLOVA / NEFU Newsroom

A unique discovery – the remains of puppy of Pleistocene predator, which was found this fall during the expedition in the Ust-Yana Region of Yakutia, will be dissected in March 2016 on the basis of North-Eastern Federal University. This was announced at a meeting with journalists on October 7.

The puppy was found near Tumat village in Syalakh countryside on August 13. The researchers - scientists of NEFU Mammoth Museum of the Institute of Applied Ecology of the North - suggested that this is a "relative" of the puppy, which lived about 12,500 years ago, which was also found in 2011 in this area.

"The new discovery after collecting soil samples for soil, palynological studies, description of burial in frozen form was delivered in Yakutsk and placed in the freezer of NEFU Mammoth Museum. The difference of the general location of the discovery is just two meters, preliminary visual inspection, the sizes of both puppy discoveries of 2011 and 2015, believed to be from the same litter", the head of Exhibition Department of Mammoth Museum Sergey Fedorov said. - The discovery became a surprise to all members of the expedition, as the group left for examination of location of Tumat first puppy, and the search for a new body wasn’t the purpose of travel".

The expedition was supported by NEFU Endowment Fund. According to Sergey Fedorov, dissection of the ancient animal is planned in March 2016 on the basis of North-Eastern Federal University, will be attended by scientists from foreign research centers.