Posted on 06/26/2020 6:22:58 AM PDT by Red Badger
As our planet's permafrosts continue to melt in record-breaking heat, we can expect to find astonishing things from the ancient past.
Like this huge wolf head, preserved since the last ice age and unearthed in incredible condition in Siberia in 2018, an estimated 40,000 years since being entombed in frozen wilderness.
The giant head, discovered by a local man in 2018 along the shores of the Tirekhtyakh River in the Russian Republic of Sakha (aka Yakutia), measures a whole 40 centimetres in length (about 16 inches), making it unlike any existing wolf specimen scientists have studied from so long ago.
"This is a unique discovery of the first ever remains of a fully grown Pleistocene wolf with its tissue preserved," palaeontologist Albert Protopopov from the Republic of Sakha Academy of Sciences told The Siberian Times back in 2019.
"We will be comparing it to modern-day wolves to understand how the species has evolved and to reconstruct its appearance."
The find followed the discovery of a number of ancient cave lion cubs in the same region in 2015 and 2017, and represents another amazingly well-preserved animal recovered from Yakutia: its fur, fangs, skin tissue, and even brain tissue are still seemingly intact.
Protopopov, together with scientists from Sweden and Japan, have studied the head, believed to be from an adult wolf two to four years old.
Their work included analysing the ancient animal's DNA, and using tomographic techniques to non-invasively see inside the skull.
According to Protopopov, finding wolf skulls in thawing Siberian permafrost isn't uncommon, but they're rarely on the same level as this massive, ancient predator.
"Several puppies have already been found," Protopopov told Russia's Interfax news agency.
"The uniqueness of this find is that we found the head of an adult wolf with perfectly preserved soft tissues and brain."
Alongside the wolf, the scientists also examined a newly discovered cave lion cub, thought to be a female. The researchers think it may have died shortly after being born and then became preserved in ice.
Nicknamed Spartak, the cub was also in an incredibly undamaged state, giving scientists an amazing opportunity to study and learn more about these ancient specimens.
"Their muscles, organs and brains are in good condition," palaeontologist Naoki Suzuki from the Jikei University School of Medicine in Tokyo told The Asahi Shimbun.
"We want to assess their physical capabilities and ecology by comparing them with lions and wolves of today."
A version of this story was first published in June 2019.
Image no worky................
Sensationalist headline. The wolf’s skull is about 31cm. That’s not far from the listed upper skull size for Canis lupus (standard gray wolf) at 28cm. It’s probably within the standard size for Canis Lupus arctos which are a larger subspecies.
Nonsense. Telling lies like this does not help support for Christianity and Judiasm. The truth about the Earth's geologic history is completely consistent with biblical teachings. No need to invent fairy tales.
Was a more, um, severe photo of Eric Severeid...
Try this?
With a bouquet even for the poor woof.
This fits in with an old Siberian legend about a headless wolf that still devours lone travelers.
It's a weird legend because, y'know, no teeth.
When I was in college I was watching movies one night with my girlfriend and her dad. We were watching "American Werewolf in London." Two American hikers in England are attacked by a werewolf. One (Jack) is killed and the other (David) wounded, becoming himself, a werewolf. The mutilated corpse of Jack haunts David in an ever-decomposing state warning David of what he is to become during the next full moon. In one scene, Jack, flesh rotting off his skull, calls David a "schmuck."
MY GF's dad thought it was hilarious, that he was able to say, "schmuck"...without any lips :-)
Completely inconsistent with what the Bible says actually.
We’ve all been fed such a huge and repeated load of BS for so long that the majority accepts them as true. Conversely you can not understand nor defend something which you have not read.
Obviously some Jew was behind that! /sarc /jk
Almost every year a mammoth or other animals are found... there are reports of Eskimos eating mammoth in the 50s and 60s.
Actually it was comet strikes in 10,800 BC which killed the mega-fauna and burned North America - lasted over 100 years, leaving a foot thick black mat of incinerated vegetable, animal and human matter, ushering in the Younger Dryas Period lasting 1000 years before another strike cause its end and brought the worldwide Flood you mention raising sea level 400-700 feet.
I'll bet the Post War years were something with all that happened.
Take Care and Stay Safe.
I have been warning about this for years. At least if they clone a giant wolf or two they can set them after a wooly mammoth to get their dinner.
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