Photo: from the archive of NEFU Mammoth Museum

On March 21, within the frameworks of the International Paleontological Seminar, NEFU scientists have extracted the well-preserved brain of a Pleistocene canid, according to the laboratory of Mammoth Museum of NEFU Research Institute of Applied Ecology of the North.

"The dura mater is well preserved, it repeats the inner relief of the cranium. The whole brain complex with the dura mater of 11 grams filled the cranial cavity approximately on 70%. Currently, the extracted brain complex passes the successive stages of preservation in different solutions. The preservation based on methods of the preservation of Yuka mammoth brain, applied by experts from the Institute of Human Morphology, Russian Academy of Sciences. It is well-known that Yuka mammoth was the only mammoth in the world with a well-preserved brain and now the second unique discovery of Yakutia is the second Tumat dog. A special research program will be formed to study the brain of Tumat puppy, involving both Russian and foreign institutions”, said Sergey Fyodorov, head of the Tumat puppy project, research engineer of NEFU Mammoth Museum.

Let us remember that during the tomography of the discovery, doctors of X-ray diagnostics department of Republican hospital №2 noticed the presence of the brain, which was clearly visible on the monitor.

"Discoveries of this kind of predators of mammoth fauna are extremely rare and can be counted on one hand. They are mummified remains of wolverine from Berelekhsky mammoth "cemetery" (1970), two puppies of the Tumat dog (2011, 2015) and two lion cubs (2015). All of them were found on the territory of Yakutia. There are no other discoveries of well-preserved Pleistocene predators worldwide", Sergey Fyodorov said.

Autopsy of the skull and extracting of the puppy's brain took place in the Anatomical Building of NEFU Medical Institute under the direction of Darima Garmayeva, Professor of the Department of General and Pathological Anatomy, Operative Surgery with Topographic Anatomy and Forensic Medicine of Medical Institute.

These two puppies are known as the Tumat dogs. The first was discovered in 2011 by local residents of the village Tumat of Ust-Yansky district. The second puppy was found by the field team of NEFU Mammoth Museum in August 2015.