We like you to meet the Varanger Dog except the dog is now quite dead, as in extinct. It lived 5,000 – 7,000 years ago in Lapland, Russia where fossilized remains were found. Depending upon the source, it may or may not have descended from a hypothetical dog species that existed next to the wolf, but what is more certain is that it had a curious dentition: It had one less tooth on either side of its jaw.
There is only one other breed that shares this peculiarity, the Norwegian Lundehund. It is the only other breed that has two less teeth than other breeds, and its AKC breed standard allows for this: “Missing premolars on both sides of the upper and lower jaws are common and allowed.”
It seems hardly fair for one breed to have so many fascinating aspects, but between ears that close both forwards and backwards, its feet, its double-jointed neck, and its resurrection from the figurative ashes, the Lundhund qualifies in our book as one of the ten most interesting breeds on the planet.
We now have this radiocarbon dated at 3,500 years ago +- 100 years
We have this radiocarbon dated to 3,500 years ago +- 100 years.
You need to pull this article because it is filled with errors. First off, Varanger is in Norway, not Russia. That is why the dog is called the “Varanger Dog” (“Varangerhunden”). Radiocarbon carbon-14 analyze show these finds to be 3,500 +- 100 years old, so I/we have no iea where you get this 5.000-7000. We only have one source about the skull and bones that were found in 1961 and that is Haakon Olsen, Curator of the Museum at Bergen who wrote the description of the skull in 1963. There is no “hypothetical dog species that existed next to a wolf,” whatever that is supposed to mean? This is a domesticated dog that already had signs of advanced domestication such as shortening of the jaw and crowding of the teeth leading to the loss of the upper second premolar and widening of the skull. It is not missing premolars on the lower jaws. This is not like a Lundehund. Hakkon Olsen repeats again and again that it is more similar to “a buhund, the Icelandic dog, a small dwarf size finnehund in Lappland, and the arhaeological finds of dogs from Bonzo, Denmark.” You must pull this article because Russian are using this false information to support 7,000 year old origins of Nenet Laikas from these Varanger finds, causin a major rift in the research community! And a lot of dedicated cynological researchers here are a little peeved about it! I have been researching, working with archaeologists and museum curators for a year and half now on the Varanger findings and can safely say that I honestly do know more than anyone about the Varanger Dog. You must pull this article or I will go through the AKC to do so. This is a serious crime of deception and spreading false information.
Based on radiocarbon dating (carbon-14) we now know that the Varanger Dog (“Varangerhunden”) is 3,500-3.850 years old +-100 years. It is not 5,000 years old, 7,000 years old, or 10,000 years old as I often read in many articles, and I have no idea where these people are getting this from. And, unfortunately, even though it is missing an upper second premolar, it is not the ancestor to Lundehunds and the Varanger Dog probably eventually went extinct. The Varanger Dog had a shorter and wider snout than the Lundehnd, and this is a common anatomical change that occurs during the domestication process, probably due to changes in diet and the loss of need to shred meat. It is not an evolutionary change that once domesticated can then be reversed. First conservator Haakon Olsen of the Zoological Museum in Bergen, Osteological Collections, was the only one to write a description of the skull (1963):
“The Varanger dog belongs to the smaller breeds of dogs, of the size of the Icelandic or Norwegian Buhund. It shows great difference from the Lundehund, fig. K. The facial profile is almost rectilinear – no high arched forehead – and the postorbital processes are flat. The cranial crest is well developed and the width between the cheekbones is very large. As in the Lundehund, one of the premolars is undeveloped.” (English translation)
“Varanger-hunden horer til de mindre hunderaser, av storrelse son Islandsk Hund eller Norsk Buhund. Den viser stor forskjell fra Lundehunde, fig. K. Ansiktsprofilen er nesten rettlinjet – ingen hoyt hvelvet panne – og postorbitalprosessne er flate. Skallekammen er velutviklet og bredden mellom kinnbuene meget stor. Som has Lundehund er en av premolare ik utviklet.” (original Norsk)
During the process of domestication tooth crowding is a common feature as the cranium and lower jaw become shorter. Missing premolars is common in small dogs and brachycephalic breeds (those with short, flat faces). For example, the Chinese Crested and Mexican Hairless (xoloitzcuintli) also lost premolars, and Australian Shepherds often have congenital missing premolars. The skull in the Varangerhunden has already shortened considerably (129.5mm basal length) and it is too wide for a Lundehund.
The Varanger Dog is said to be closer to a Buhund, an Icelandic dog, a small contemporary dog from Lappland called “a dwarf sized finnhunde of the spitz type,” and with skulls found at Bundsö, Denmark. However, it is possble that it could have shared a distant common ancestor with Lundehunds. In a separate unpublished manuscript that I have n my possession, dated June 1975 entIited “VARANGER-FUNNENE av HAAKON OLSEN – PATTEDYR” unsigned but printed at the bottom “Bergen, juni 1975, Zoologisk Museum, University of Bergen,” it states;
“This manuscript is a 1963 outline, summary, review of the mammal fragments found at Varanger with a comparison of the skull to the buhund, the Icelandic dog, “a comparison with a small contemporary dog from Lapland, a dwarf size finnhunde, of the spitz type…. held at the University of Copenhagen,” and with skulls found at Bundsö, a Neolithic settlement in Denmark. There is/was only one skull, found at “Gressbakken house 4,” and it is “a small dog of the palustris size as is found in Late Stone Age over large parts of Europe” (i.e. Canus familiaris palustris), with a basal length of 129.5 mm, “within the same interval range as the buhund…”