The fossil wolf of Rome

illustration I worked on to promote the discovery of the oldest fossil of a wolf found in Europe.

By pure chance, the fossil has been unearthed in Rome the city whose symbol is the she-wolf that nurtured Romulus and Remo according to the Founding of Rome legend. The fossil has been dated around 400.000 years ago (Middle Pleistocene) thanks to volcanic sediments found on and inside the fossilized bone which were produced by the eruption of the Vico volcano.

I was part of the group that studied the specimen and we published the results of our research on Scientific Reports: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-06812-5