Dr. Selina Brace

I think that definitely constitutes as an exceptionally good work day when you realise that we've managed to sequence Britain's oldest dog, that's for sure.

Well, kind of yes and no.

Yes, it's always a surprise.

You know, we're working with ancient fragmented DNA, so we're always relieved when it works, when you get a result.

But should we have been surprised?

Well, we've been working on the site for a number of years, so we know that the DNA actually has very good preservation there.

And we've also known that it was quite likely that dogs existed there.

So the clues were already there, but it took a little while for the genetics and the genetic capabilities to catch up.

So, yeah, for everything to align as well as it did, yeah, that's always a good surprise.

Yeah, we've been really lucky to work together for a number of years now.

So getting to work on Goss Caves for so long has been incredibly special.

Yeah, so although we first saw the dog in the NHM collections, the dog was initially found in Gough's Cave in Cheddar Gorge in Somerset.

So as I've said, we've worked on Cheddar Gorge for a number of years now.

It's an amazing site.

It's a limestone cave that people can go and visit, go and see.

It's got these amazing stalagmites.

But it's also been, as you mentioned, an absolute treasure trove for significant archaeological finds over the years.

So the cave itself, or the particular assemblage, the group of bones and material that we're talking about now, where this dog has been found, dates to around the period of around 15,000 years.

So this is a period of climate warming.

So this is after the end of the last ice age, so when Britain would have been covered by ice sheets.