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Researchers are studying a 44,000-year-old mummified wolf found in permafrost in Russia.
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The wolf can tell scientists about its lifestyle and diet during the Pleistocene Era.
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Researchers hope to learn more about ancient bacteria and how the wolf is related to modern animals.
That wolf looks very good due to its age, considering that it is 44,000 years old.
In 2021, residents of Yakutia in eastern Russia encountered the wolf in thick permafrost — ground that normally remains frozen year-round, but in many places has begun to thaw as the global average temperature rises.
Now, researchers at the Northeast Federal University in Yakutsk, Russia, are studying the mummified remains to find out more about the animal.
The frozen conditions helped mummify and perfectly preserve the Pleistocene predator. Its teeth and much of its fur are still intact, as are some of its organs.
“It’s shocking, actually,” Robert Losey, an anthropologist at the University of Alberta who was not involved in the research, told Business Insider.
“It is the only complete Pleistocene adult wolf ever found, which in itself is truly remarkable and completely unique,” he added.
There is a lot to learn from such well preserved ancient animalincluding his genetics, lifestyle, diet and even what kind of ancient bacteria and viruses he had.
“Live bacteria can survive thousands of years ago, which are a kind of witnesses of those ancient times,” said Artemy Goncharov, a researcher at the Institute of Experimental Medicine, in a translated translation declaration.
The wolf’s stomach can contain its last meal and more
This 44,000-year-old wolf probably belongs to an extinct species and was probably larger than modern wolves, Losey said. Studying the animal’s genome will help reveal where it fits on the canine family tree.
After examining one of its teeth, scientists believe the wolf was an adult male. He probably hunted in a flat, cold environment full of mammoths, shaggy rhinos, extinct horses, bison and reindeer.
Remains of some of these animals may even be left in the wolf’s bowels. Researchers took samples from his stomach and digestive tract to learn more and are awaiting the results.
Researchers will also be able to discover which ancient functions microbes carried out in the wolf’s intestine and whether it had parasites, Losey said. If any of the microorganisms are unknown to science, they could play a role in the development of future medicines, the researchers said in the statement.
This discovery is just part of a larger collaboration to study other ancient animals, including fossil hares, a horse and a bear. Researchers previously studied a wolf head from the Pleistocene era and has another wolf fossil awaiting dissection.
Ancient animals and infectious agents are thawing
As the world’s permafrost thaws due to rising global temperatures, more ancient creatures like this one are resurfacing. In the Yukon, for example, paleontologists still fawn over an impeccably preserved baby mammoth discovered in 2022.
However, not everything in permafrost is so harmless.
In 2016, melting ice on Siberia’s Yamal Peninsula released anthrax from a frozen reindeer carcass, causing an outbreak that infected 36 people and killed one child.
Researchers fear that others pathogens can sleep in the tundrawith the thaw of a warming world slowly advancing towards them.
Last year, researcher Jean-Michel Claverie announced that he had revived a 48,000-year-old virus found in Siberian permafrost. It could still infect single-celled amoebae.
“We see these amoeba-infecting viruses as surrogates for all the other possible viruses that might be in permafrost,” Claverie said. CNN at the time. “We see traces of many, many other viruses. So we know they’re there. We’re not sure if they’re still alive.”
Any ancient viruses or bacteria in the Yakutia wolf’s guts could help researchers better understand the microbes hidden inside the permafrost creatures.
Read the original article at Business Insider
