The Klondike region of Canada is famous for its gold, but now other remarkable ancient treasures have been unearthed from the melting permafrost.
Two mummified ice age mammals – a wolf pup and a caribou calf – were discovered by gold miners in the area in 2016 and unveiled on Thursday at a ceremony in Dawson in Yukon territory.
It is extremely rare for fur, skin and muscle tissues to be preserved in the fossil record, but all three are present on these specimens, which have been radiocarbon-dated to more than 50,000 years old.
The wolf pup is preserved in its entirety, including exceptional details of the head, tail, paws, skin and hair. The caribou calf is partially preserved, with head, torso and two front limbs intact.
“To our knowledge, this is the only mummified ice age wolf ever found in the world,” said Grant Zazula, a local palaeontologist working with the Yukon government, who also emphasised the support of the local gold miners and mining community for palaeontology research.
Julie Meachen, a carnivore morphologist who works with ice age mammals at Des Moines University and will soon be doing research on the wolf pup, said: “When Grant sent me the pictures and asked me to participate I was really, really excited. I was sort of beside myself.
“We want to do an ancient DNA test to see who it’s related to and look at its microbiome to see if there are gut bacteria still there.”
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