Buzz
If you’re in Siberia, keep your head! It might be found perfectly preserved after thousands of years.
A group of mammoth tusk hunters in eastern Siberia recently uncovered the head of an Ice Age wolf—its body long gone—trapped in the region's permafrost. Nearly intact due to being frozen for tens of thousands of years, scientists have dated the specimen to the Pleistocene Epoch, a period from 1.8 million to 11,700 years ago during the Ice Age. The head is just under 16 inches long, as reported by The Siberian Times, roughly the same size as a modern gray wolf’s.
The wolf, believed to have been around 2 to 4 years old when it died, was found with its fur, teeth, and soft tissue remarkably well preserved. Researchers explained that the region’s permafrost, a layer of permanently frozen ground, kept the head intact, much like a steak in a freezer. CT scans of the head have been conducted to uncover more details of its anatomy for further analysis.
Tori Herridge, an evolutionary biologist from London’s Natural History Museum, observed the discovery of the head in August 2018. She carbon-dated the tissue and tweeted that it was approximately 32,000 years old.
The discovery was announced in early June to coincide with the opening of the new exhibit, "The Mammoth," at Tokyo’s Miraikan National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation. The exhibit showcases over 40 Pleistocene specimens, including a frozen horse and a mammoth trunk, all perfectly preserved due to the permafrost. (It’s unclear whether the wolf’s head is part of the exhibition.)
While it's exciting to view these ancient creatures, scientists warned that the rising number of animals emerging from permafrost is a concerning trend. Albert Protopopov, director of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Sakha, told CNN that climate change is gradually thawing the permafrost. As temperatures rise, it’s more likely that additional prehistoric specimens will be uncovered.
With global temperatures continuing to increase, it’s possible we may discover even more long-extinct creatures emerging from the ice.
