Dogsey

COLUMBUS, OHIO—A prehistoric dog is about to go to the dentist. Ardern Hulme-Beaman, a lanky 27-year-old Irish postdoc, pulls on a white facemask and lifts a small 5000-year-old jawbone from a cardboard box. He places a gloved hand over one of the molars and gently tugs from side to side until it pops out. The jagged top of the tooth is yellowish white, but the roots are dirty brown. Hulme-Beaman powers on a drill, and a circular blade screeches into a root. The scent of burning hair fills the air. “That's a good sign,” he says. “It means there's DNA here.”

Hulme-Beaman has spent the past 6 months traveling the world in search of ancient dog bones like this one. He's found plenty in this Ohio State University archaeology laboratory. Amid boxes stacked high with Native American artifacts, rows of plastic containers filled with primate teeth, and a hodgepodge of microscopes, calipers, and research papers, a few shoe and cigar boxes hold the jigsaw pieces of a dozen canines: skulls, femurs, mandibles, and vertebrae.