Scientists have discovered a mummified wolf from the Ice Age that is 57,000 years old.
The animal is almost completely preserved and still has its fur.
Yukon researchers landed a real godsend in Canada when a miner found a frozen
wolf
.
As it turned out, this is a
mummified
wolf.
The ice had preserved the wolf pup for a full 57,000 years.
The animal has been
so well preserved
by the
cold
that researchers can draw many important conclusions.
Wolf mummy: body is well preserved
This is "the most complete mummy of a
gray wolf
from the Pleistocene that has ever been found," reports Julie Meachen's research team in the journal
Current Biology
.
The female wolf puppy is a so-called permafrost corpse.
These arise from the fact that animals
are exposed to
permanent
cold
after their death
and freeze solid.
According to a report by
National Geographic
, the conditions of the Siberian permafrost are
ideal
for such
mummies to form
.
+
The mummified she-wolf gives the researchers important insights.
© Government of Yukon
They are often still completely intact, ie bones, hair, nails, for example, have been preserved.
This is also the case with the wolf mummy, which is well preserved except for its eyes.
As
reported by
rtl.de
, a gold digger accidentally
discovered
the animal behind an
ice wall
and initially did not identify it as such.
Only when he
melted
the
mummy
with warm water did he see that it was a
wolf
.
Then a research team took on the matter.
Mummified wolf: animal died shortly after it was born
The find of the
mummified
wolf is particularly valuable
for the scientists
, because it provides information about how the ecosystems of the
Ice Age developed
from the perspective of predators.
"The ancient DNA shows once again how much more complex evolutionary histories and paleontology are than we could otherwise deduce from studying bones and fossils," said paleogeneticist Tyler Murchie.
In addition, the researchers were able to find out through genetic analyzes that the she-wolf has the same ancestors as the modern wolves (* FR reported).
+
The found body of the little she-wolf is estimated to be 57,000 years old.
© Government of Yukon
The scientists suspect that the young
wolf died
at the tender age of only seven weeks.
Based on the tooth structure, it can also be seen that the she-wolf must have primarily fed on animals from flowing waters, i.e. fish.
* FR
is part of the nationwide Ippen-Digital editors network.