Russia: A cave bear about 39,000 years old has been unfreezed out of a chunk of ice in Siberia. Archaeologists have discovered two perfectly preserved bears, a mother and a cub, inside frozen ice. Russian scientists call the finding of ‘world importance’.
The only evidence of cave bears until this discovery were bones. But these bears were so well preserved that they’ve still got fur, and the mother can be seen to be baring her teeth. Cave bears are a prehistoric species or subspecies that lived on the Eurasian continent between 300,000 and 15,000 years ago. As it has been packed in ice for so long, even the soft tissue of the bear, known as Ursus Spelaeus, has remained through the passing of nearly 40,000 years.
“Today this is the first and only find of its kind – a whole bear carcass with soft tissues.It is completely preserved, with all internal organs in place. Photographs show the bear’s nose is intact. Previously, only skulls and bones were found,” quoted Dr Lena Grigorieva.
The scientists will be inviting experts from around the world to help them better understand this forgotten creature. There is not a complete surety as to how old the remains actually are but there are thought to be between 22,000 and 39,500 years old. Remains of woolly mammoths, woolly rhinos, and other extinct species have been yielded from ice in recent years as it breaks.
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