While mining around the hills of Canada ’s thick Second Earl of Guilford in the summertime of 2016 , workers unearth two priceless treasure : the unbelievably well - keep remains of an Ice Age wolf pup and a caribou calf .
The fluffy duo were find out at a mine near Dawson City in Yukon in June and July 2016 , respectively , and have been nearly study by a local team of paleontologists for the retiring two years . A recent radiocarbon analysis of the Ice Age specimens dates them to over 50,000 twelvemonth old . The caribou ( or reindeer ) was learn at a site that contains a volcanic ash bed that go steady to close to 80,000 years ago , hinting it could potentially be even one-time .
" We think this is really likely the oldest mummified mammal tissue in the world for soft - tissue skin , haircloth and muscle , " Grant Zazula , a Yukon government palaeontologist , toldThe Canadian Pressnews agency .
The wolf pup is complete , and looks like it could be sleeping . " It ’s beautiful , the pelt , it ’s got the cunning small hand and tail and the curled upper back talk showing its teeth . It ’s spectacular , " he said .
Zazula toldThe Guardianthat it is the only mummified Ice Age wolf ever found in the human beings , to their noesis .
They are both exceptionally well - preserved ( despite the caribou ’s wanting back end ) thanks to the conditions of Yukon in the Ice Age . Although now caked in a thick layer of trees , it was once a astonishingly arid tundra environment with very little tree cover . These conditions countenance the bodies to become quickly freeze - dry out and buried within permafrost , which keep them preserved like a prehistoric refrigerator for at least 50,000 old age .
The body willshortly be going on displayin Dawson for a calendar month before joining an showing at the Yukon Beringia Interpretive Centre in Whitehorse .
However , there is still much to be learned about these two . researcher are hop to further analyze the chemical theme of the caribou and wolf os to get insights into their environment and dieting . They also hope to carry out further deoxyribonucleic acid testing to understand how these individuals died .
Other than a distich of mummified squirrel , there has n’t been a important preserve fauna find in Yukon since the remains of a horse cavalry were discover 30 years ago , so the investigator are pretty pleased .
“ We sometimes get covetous because in Siberia , we have fellow who work in Russia , and it seems like they find a new woolly mammoth carcass every summer , " Zazula said . " We never seem to find those in the Yukon or Alaska . "
It ’s true Siberia is particularly productive in Ice Age creature discoveries . Researchers in the Yakutia part of northerly Russian recently discovered the incredibly well - preserved cadaver of a40,000 - year - old foal , just weeks after unearth the frozen corpse of a potentially new distinct species of , yes , pygmy mammoth .
