Dogs are man’s best friend, and depending on the breed and training, can be lovable, loyal, and dear companions for life. But the average life-span of dogs rarely goes over 13 years. Dog breeds date back as far as the Egyptian pharaohs, vikings, Chinese dynasties, etc.

But a recent discovery in Sweden  may have unearthed the oldest dog ever. While studying the Siberian permafrost, scientists came upon a stunning discovery… a puppy of what looked like a dog, frozen deep in the snow. It was amazingly well preserved, and looks a lot like present-day pups. Even the teeth were perfectly preserved, and appeared more dog like than wolf-like. Needless to say, the scientists were astonished by the discovery. Researcher Love Dalen was part of the team that discovered the frozen creature. “It was amazingly preserved even before they cleaned it up. When we found it, we didn’t know how old it was. They said they found it in the permafrost but it happens that things get frozen in there that are only a few hundred years old or even a few decades.” After it was radiocarbon dated, the fact that it was 18,000 years old changed everything. The researchers were excited because they realized the time period was genetically interesting with regards to wolves and dogs. So what does this mean actually? The scientists are hoping the discovery will help them understand where and when dogs were domesticated. There is an episode in the animation Futurama about the character Fry discovering a thousand-year old dog. But viewers were saddened when the dog died waiting for Fry, who was frozen and transported to another century. Well, so much for the cartoon episode, back to reality. The pooch that the scientists found could reveal the answers to how and when wolves were domesticated into dogs. We just have to wait for clever scientists to unravel the mystery. By the way, they did give the dog a name, they named him Dogor.