I am watching the season 2 episode “The Alternate” in which Dr Mora, the scientist who discovered Odo, relays stories about his early years and expresses doubt that Odo was ready to leave.
Is it ever established how long ago Odo was discovered by the scientists?
The only other data points I can think of is that he came to Deep Space 9 5 years before season 2(from “Necessary Evil”), and that the other Alpha Quadrant changeling who visits the station is “older” at ~200 years.
It would appear that Odo was sent away from the planet of the Founders at much the same time as Laas (some time in the 22nd Century?), along with 98 other infant changelings. Odo's vessel was sucked into a previously unknown wormhole just a few hundreds of lightyears from Dominion space and then lay dormant in the Denorios Belt where it was discovered by the Bajorans some 170 years later.
There was a line cut from the original DS9: Emissary script which confirms the finding of Odo's ship and which confirms his age.
DAX: (continuing) .. There have also been twenty-three navigational reports over the years of severe neutrino disturbances in the same area...
[Pressing another panel...]
DAX: (continuing) And thirty-two years ago, a vessel of unknown origin appeared there, carrying a single lifeform, a species never encountered before.
