Thawed out of permafrost 44,000-year-old prehistoric wolf found in Siberia
A prehistoric wolf has thawed out of the permafrost in Siberia. According to researchers, the animal died around 44,000 years ago. The body is so well preserved that even the last meal in its stomach has been preserved.
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- Locals have found a prehistoric wolf in the Siberian permafrost.
- The well-preserved remains provide researchers with insights into the animal's lifestyle and diet.
- The mummified animal is believed to have lived 44,000 years ago.
With its bared teeth, it may have frightened Scrat, Sid and co. during the Ice Age. Now, 44,000 years later, the prehistoric wolf lies on the autopsy table at Russia's North-Eastern Federal University.
Locals have found an almost perfectly preserved wolf from the Pleistocene, i.e. the Ice Age. Most of the fur and teeth are still present. The researchers are also said to have identified some of the wolf's organs and its last meal.
The mummified animal was only uncovered because the permafrost in Siberia is thawing more and more due to the global rise in temperature. There are amazing things hiding under the ice, as the wolf from Yakutia proves.
Dr. Maxim Cheprasov, head of the laboratory at the Mammoth Museum, is quoted on the university's website: "We extracted a tooth to determine the biological age of the find. However, based on the wear of the teeth and the development of the crest, we can already say that it is an adult male."
"Witnesses of ancient times"
By examining the fossil wolf, the scientists are learning more about how the animal lived and fed during the Ice Age. Ancient viruses, microbes, parasites and traces of the last meal in the mummy's stomach and intestines reveal exciting information.
"We can see that living bacteria can survive in the finds of fossil animals for thousands of years and thus serve as witnesses to these ancient times," says Cheprasov.
The study of previously unknown microorganisms could also help in the development of new medicines.
Released viruses are not entirely harmless
However, research into the remains of prehistoric animals is not entirely harmless, as a case from 2016 reported in Bild shows.
At that time, a frozen reindeer was found in Siberia, which ultimately caused anthrax to circulate. A total of 36 people are said to have contracted the disease: For one child, the infection even ended fatally.
The researchers at North-Eastern Federal University are delighted with the discovery. Dr. Albert Protopopov, head of the Department of Mammoth Fauna Studies at the Yakutia Academy of Sciences, says: "Its stomach was preserved in isolated form, there are no contaminants. We hope to obtain a snapshot of the biota of the ancient Pleistocene through the dissection."