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Researchers are studying a 44,000-year-old mummified wolf discovered in permafrost in Russia.
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The wolf could explain to scientists what its lifestyle and diet were like at the time Pleistocene era.
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Researchers hope to learn more about ancient bacteria and the connections between wolves and modern animals.
This the wolf looks pretty good for his age, considering he is 44,000 years old.
In 2021, residents of Yakutia in eastern Russia found the wolf in thick permafrost — ground that normally stays frozen year-round, but in many places has begun to thaw as global average temperatures rise.
Now, researchers at the North-Eastern Federal University in Yakutsk, Russia, are studying the mummified remains to learn more about the animal.
The freezing conditions made it possible to mummify and perfectly preserve the Pleistocene predator. His teeth and much of his fur are still intact, as are some of his organs.
“It’s shocking, actually,” Robert Losey, an anthropologist at the University of Alberta who was not involved in the research, told Business Insider.
“This is the only complete adult Pleistocene wolf ever discovered, which in itself is truly remarkable and completely unique,” he added.
There is much to learn from such a well-preserved ancient animalincluding its genetics, lifestyle, diet, and even the type of ancient bacteria and viruses it had.
“Living bacteria can survive for thousands of years, who are, as it were, witnesses of those ancient times,” said Artemy Goncharov, a researcher at the Institute of Experimental Medicine, in a translated version statement.
The wolf’s stomach can hold its last meal and much more
This 44,000-year-old wolf probably belongs to an extinct species and was probably larger than modern wolvesLosey said. Studying the animal’s genome will help reveal where it fits in the canine family tree.
After examining one of its teeth, scientists believe it was an adult male. It likely hunted in a cold, flat environment populated by mammoths, woolly rhinos, extinct horses, bison and reindeer.
It is even possible that remains of some of these animals remained in the wolf’s intestine. Researchers have taken samples from its stomach and digestive tract to learn more and are awaiting the results.
Researchers may also be able to determine what ancient functions microbes made in the wolf’s intestine and whether it contained parasites, Losey said. If any of these microorganisms are unknown to science, they could play a role in future drug development, the researchers said in the statement.
The discovery is just part of a larger collaboration to study other ancient animals, including fossils of hares, a horse and a bear. Researchers have already studied a wolf head from the Pleistocene era and we have another wolf fossil awaiting dissection.
Ancient animals and infectious agents are thawing
As permafrost melts due to rising global temperatures, older creatures like this are reappearing. In the Yukon, for example, paleontologists still admire an impeccably preserved baby mammoth discovered in 2022.
However, not everything in permafrost is so harmless.
In 2016, thaws in Siberia’s Yamal Peninsula released anthrax from a once-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 thawing of a warming world slowly approaching them.
Last year, researcher Jean-Michel Claverie announced that he had reanimated a 48,000-year-old virus discovered in Siberian permafrost. It could still infect single-celled amoebas.
“We view these amoeba-infecting viruses as surrogates for all the other possible viruses that might be in the permafrost,” Claverie said. CNN “We see traces of many, many, many other viruses. So we know they are there. We don’t know for sure if they are still alive. »
Any ancient viruses or bacteria found in the Yakutian wolf’s gut could help researchers better understand the microbes lurking inside the permafrost creatures.
Read the original article on Business Insider