Experts say they are the first frozen remains including intact flesh from a Pleistocene era predator. Meaning these remains are an incredibly well preserved specimen from a creature that hunted in the area some 44,000 years ago.
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00:00These are the remains of an ancient wolf discovered in 2021 in Russia.
00:08Experts say they are the first frozen remains, including intact flesh, from a Pleistocene-era predator,
00:14meaning these remains are an incredibly well-preserved specimen from a creature that hunted in the area some 44,000 years ago.
00:21The creature was discovered in the Yakutia region, a swampy area that includes many forests, with around 95% of it covered in permafrost.
00:29That is how this specimen was able to remain on ice for so long, with one of the researchers saying about it,
00:34usually it's the herbivorous animals that die, get stuck in swamps, freeze, and reach us as a whole.
00:39This is the first time when a large carnivore has been found.
00:42Researchers are hoping to divine what the wolf ate by inspecting the contents of its frozen belly.
00:47They are also hoping to figure out what relationship it had to other prehistoric wolf populations in Eurasia.
00:52They say it was a bit smaller than a cave lion or bear, and it was likely a hunter and scavenger.
00:58And because our planet is getting warmer, researchers say this type of discovery will no doubt become a more frequent occurrence.