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57,000 years old: Researchers discover perfectly preserved wolf pups

2021-01-20T16:28:32.942Z


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.


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.

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2021-01-20

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