Furry head of Ice Age wolf found perfectly preserved in Russian Arctic permafrost - Action News
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Science

Furry head of Ice Age wolf found perfectly preserved in Russian Arctic permafrost

About 40,000 years ago, a wolf died in what we know as Siberia. Now, its severed head has been found.

It's believed the animal lived 40,000 years ago

The head of an Ice Age wolf, found in August 2018. Experts believe the wolf roamed the earth about 40,000 years ago. (Valery Plotnikov/Academy of Sciences of Yakuti/The Associated Press)

Russian scientists have found the furry head of an Ice Age wolf perfectly preserved in the Siberian permafrost.

The head of a wolf, which died 40,000 years ago, was discovered in the Russian Arctic region of Yakutia. Because of the freezing conditions, it is so well preserved that its fur, teeth, brain and facial tissue are largely intact.

A Yakutia resident, Pavel Yefimov, found the head last summer on the banks of the Tirekhtyakh river, close to the Arctic Circle in the region of Yakutia, local media outlet the Siberian Times reported.

The head was handed over to the Science Academy of Yakutia. They sent samples and measurement data abroad and with help from colleagues in Japan and Sweden determined its age as approximately 40,000 years, the Siberian Times reported.

The head was preserved in the permafrost of what's now known as Siberia. (Valery Plotnikov/Academy of Sciences of Yakuti/The Associated Press)

The head was shown in public this week in footage provided to Reuters TV by the academy. It shows the head of an animal, visibly bigger than that of a modern wolf, covered with fur and with teeth visible. Its eyes are missing.

Plotnikov, a top researcher at the local branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said the animal belonged to an ancient subspecies of wolf that lived at the same time as the mammoths and became extinct alongside them. Scientists said it was an adult, about 25 per centbigger than today's wolves, but did not say whether it was male or female.

Plotnikov called the discovery unique because scientists previously only had found wolf skulls without tissues or furwhile this head has ears, a tongue and a perfectly preserved brain.

The brain, fur, tissues and even tongue of the wolf were perfectly preserved, thanks to the freezing conditions. (Valery Plotnikov/Academy of Sciences of Yakuti/The Associated Press)

With files from The Associated Press

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