Gold miners find 50,000-year-old calf of caribou and a small Canadian permafrost wolf | Smart News

Today, the landscape of Dawson City, Yukon-A territory of northwestern Canada, famous for its role in the late nineteenth century in the Klondike Gold rush-It is dominated by heavy forest cover, but about 50,000 years ago, the region was a frozen tundra without trees. Long-extinct animals, including woolly mammoths and camels from the west, rubbed shoulders with mammals whose distant offspring still inhabit arctic territories today, navigating in the arid climate with mixed success.

Now, two of these ice age creatures – a caribou calf and a wolf cub – have emerged from the Yukon's permafrost, or permanently frozen ground, thousands of years after their death, their fur, their skin and their muscles being almost intact.

The GuardianAnthea Lacchia writes that the mummified animals, which were unearthed by gold miners in the summer of 2016, made their public debut last Thursday. Both were radiocarbon dated over 50,000 years ago, making their state of preservation all the more impressive. As paleontologist Grant Zazula puts it to The Canadian press, specimens are among the earliest examples of soft tissues of ever-found mammalian mammals, and the Cub is the only one of its kind to be dug up.

according to BBC News, the wolf is the best preserved of the two specimens, retaining everything from its fur to its tail and curved upper lip. The researchers believe that the puppy died at the age of about eight weeks. The caribou is in worse condition, with only the head, torso, and forelimbs intact, but like the wolf, it provides a singular example of skin, muscle, and mummified animal hair.

CBC News reports that the caribou was found in a gold mine owned by local reality star Tony Beets in June 2016. The calf was buried in a permafrost near a volcanic ash bed dating back to 80,000 years. . A month later, another local miner accidentally met the werewolf, whom he first identified as a dead dog.

The head, torso and anterior calves of the caribou calf are still intact

(Government of Yukon)

This is not the first time Canadian permafrost has produced a spectacular mummified discovery. About 30 years ago, two miners discovered the partial remains from a Yukon of about 26,000 years horse, but as Zazula told the Canadian press, no significant soft tissue specimens have emerged since.

"We are sometimes jealous because in Siberia, it seems like they find a new carcass of woolly mammoth each summer," he notes. "But we never seem to find those in the Yukon or Alaska."

It is true that the Siberian region of Yakutia is famous for its innumerable singular discoveries: at the end of August, researchers discovered by chance the mummified remains of 30,000 to 40,000 years ago. baby horse. And, last November, a local Russian discovered the frozen remains of a lion cub cave off who died 50,000 years ago.

Thanks to Yukon caribou and werewolf, Canadian scientists finally have a pair of specimens that rivals Siberian finds.

The Canadian press reports that the researchers' next step will be genetic tests designed to provide insight into the diets of ancient animals, which in turn will reveal information about their glacial environment and an analysis of the pair's bone composition.

For the moment, the mummified specimens will remain exposed at the Dawson City workshop. Cultural Center Dänojà Zho. Finally, the remains will be incorporated into an exhibition at the Interpretation Center of Beringia in Whitehorse.

"When we look at the fossil bones, that's one thing," Zazula concludes. "But when you see a whole animal from ancient times, it gives life to this ancient time. This leads you to reflect on the incredible changes that have occurred in the environment, the climate and the animal community since that time. "

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