New dog sense! It's hard to believe what four-legged friends can do

Sweden/Hungary - The nose of dogs is impressive. Thanks to its unique abilities, it is often used to find missing people, drugs, money or other things. However, a fascinating discovery now proves that the olfactory organ can do even more than previously thought.

A dog's nose is a true marvel. According to Science Magazine, scientists believe that it is up to 100 million times more sensitive than its human counterpart.

But the olfactory organ doesn't just have an impressive sense of smell, as researchers from Lund University (Sweden) and Eotvos Lorand (Hungary) have now discovered.

In a two-part experiment, they discovered that the noses of four-legged friends can also sense radiant heat. This ability was previously only known in the black pine beetle, certain snakes and bats.

In the first experimental set-up, they allowed three dogs to choose between a heated object (31 degrees Celcius) and an object adapted to the ambient temperature.

These were hidden at a distance of 1.60 meters so that the four-legged friends could neither see nor smell them. Nevertheless, all three unerringly chose the heated object.

In the second experimental setup, the brains of 13 other animals were scanned using an MRI. Again, they were presented with objects that were heated and not heated.

This showed that the regions responsible for the sense of smell always reacted more strongly to the warm objects. There was no reaction to the neutral stimulus in other regions of the brain.

In summary, this means that dogs can detect heat hot spots using their nose and that this triggers a reaction in their brain.

But where does this ability come from and why is it needed? Scientists suspect that it is an inheritance from their ancestor, the prehistoric wolf.

This enabled them not only to see and smell their victims during the hunt, but also to perceive them through their body heat.

For Marc Bekoff, ethnologist and dog sniffing expert, one thing is certain: "It is a fascinating discovery. (It) provides another window into the sensory worlds of dogs' highly developed cold noses." What will the four-legged friends impress us with next?