Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

46,000-Year-Old Bird Found With Feathers And Talons Intact In The Siberian Permafrost
All That's Interesting ^ | December 8, 2024 | Natasha Ishak

Posted on 12/18/2024 12:25:34 PM PST by Red Badger

Scientists identified the specimen as a horned lark, which they believe could be an ancestor to two lark species alive now.

Love Dalén - An intact 46,000-year-old bird was found for the first time in the Siberian permafrost.

Archaeologists have uncovered many remarkable, ancient specimens from the Siberian permafrost. This time they found the mummified remains of a whole bird — and it still had its feathers and talons intact.

According to CNN, the 46,000-year-old bird has been identified as a horned lark, or Eremophila alpestris, and scientists believe it could be a prehistoric predecessor to two subspecies alive today, the horned larks in the Mongolian steppe and those living in northern Russia.

Moreover, this is the first known wholly intact bird specimen ever dug up in the frozen tundra.

“This finding implies that the climatic changes that took place at the end of the last Ice Age led to the formation of new subspecies,” said Love Dalén, an expert in evolutionary genetics from the Swedish Museum of Natural History and part of the research team that examined the ancient bird.

Based on the team’s study, which was published in the journal Communications Biology, the bird has been frozen since the last Ice Age and was found 23 feet below ground inside a Siberian ice tunnel.

The unique specimen was discovered by local fossil hunters near the village of Belaya Gora in northeastern Siberia.

Love Dalén - Close-up of the specimen’s feathers and talons which have survived since the Ice Age.

Specimens found within the Siberian permafrost are expected to have a high degree of preservation. The frozen layers of the tundra provide ideal conditions for an animal carcass to remain mostly intact for tens of thousands of years. But this prehistoric horned lark was in exceptionally good condition.

“The fact that such a small and fragile specimen was near intact also suggests that dirt or mud must have been deposited gradually, or at least that the ground was relatively stable so that the bird’s carcass was preserved in a state very close to its time of death,” said Nicolas Dussex, a co-author of the study.

The team plans to sequence the bird’s entire genome which will give researchers a better understanding of the animal’s evolution. Examining the bird’s genes could also help researchers to estimate the rate of evolution between species of larks.

“This in turn will open new opportunities to study the evolution of ice age fauna and understand their responses to climate change over the past 50-10 thousands of years ago,” Dussex explained.

The “priceless” specimen has been recorded into the Sakha Academy of Sciences collection in Yakutsk.

Centre for Palaeogenetics/Twitter

Dogor, the wolf-dog, was discovered in the same area. Experts date the specimen back to 18,000 years ago.

Yakutsk is a city in eastern Siberia — said to be the coldest on Earth with average temperatures dropping below 34 degrees Fahrenheit. The area is known to produce remarkably preserved species from the past.

Last year, Dalén took part in another exciting study which involved a mummified wolf-dog that was found in the permafrost after having died 18,000 years ago. The scientists named the wolf-dog “Dogor” and an examination of his genome revealed that he was neither wolf nor dog. According to the scientists, the prehistoric canine had lived during “a very interesting time in terms of wolf and dog evolution.”

There were at least a handful of similar wholly intact specimens retrieved from the permafrost in recent years. In June 2019, researchers uncovered a 40,000-year-old whole wolf head from the Pleistocene era. The year before, scientists unearthed a 40,000-year-old foal of a now-extinct horse species, also in the Yakutia region of Siberia.

There will no doubt be more discoveries from the frozen depths of the Siberian tundra, especially as the permafrost continues to melt away due to Earth’s changing climate.

Now that you’ve read about the first avian species dug out of the Siberian permafrost with its feathers and talons still in place, check out the mummies of a wolf and caribou found with their skin and fur intact. Then, discover the prehistoric beast called the “Siberian unicorn” whose discovery shocked scientists.


TOPICS: Food; History; Outdoors; Pets/Animals
KEYWORDS: crevo; eremophilaalpestris; godsgravesglyphs; hornedlark; lark; naturalclimatechange; oldearthspeculation; siberia; storkzilla; tundra; youngearthdelusion; youngearthdelusions
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-29 next last

1 posted on 12/18/2024 12:25:34 PM PST by Red Badger
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: SunkenCiv

Tastes like chicken?.....................


2 posted on 12/18/2024 12:25:54 PM PST by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegals are put up in 5 Star hotels....................)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger; StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; 1ofmanyfree; 21twelve; 24Karet; ...
Polly *really* wants a cracker.

3 posted on 12/18/2024 12:31:13 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Putin should skip ahead to where he kills himself in the bunker.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

That’s incredible. I wonder if they could extract DNA from that. It’s almost as old as Pelosi.


4 posted on 12/18/2024 12:31:18 PM PST by GrandJediMasterYoda (As long as Hillary Clinton remains free, the USA will never have equal justice under the law)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SunkenCiv

IBPFTF


5 posted on 12/18/2024 12:31:42 PM PST by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion, or satire, or both.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: GrandJediMasterYoda

Probably. Then use it to resurrect the species. Would make a great movie...................oh, wait a sec..........


6 posted on 12/18/2024 12:34:19 PM PST by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegals are put up in 5 Star hotels....................)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: GrandJediMasterYoda
The team plans to sequence the bird’s entire genome which will give researchers a better understanding of the animal’s evolution. Examining the bird’s genes could also help researchers to estimate the rate of evolution between species of larks.
7 posted on 12/18/2024 12:36:14 PM PST by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegals are put up in 5 Star hotels....................)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: BenLurkin
IBPFTF

WTFIIBPFTF

TSE

8 posted on 12/18/2024 12:37:19 PM PST by Hot Tabasco
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: SunkenCiv

It’s just pining for the fjords................


9 posted on 12/18/2024 12:39:44 PM PST by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegals are put up in 5 Star hotels....................)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

goose is cooked...


10 posted on 12/18/2024 12:39:57 PM PST by heavy metal (smiling improves your face value and makes people wonder what the hell you're up to... 😁)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: BenLurkin

😁.....................


11 posted on 12/18/2024 12:40:08 PM PST by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegals are put up in 5 Star hotels....................)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

Their pooping on the park guest!


12 posted on 12/18/2024 12:40:41 PM PST by Rurudyne (Standup Philosopher )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

That’s highly larkly.


13 posted on 12/18/2024 12:43:19 PM PST by NeverTyranny
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

Poor thing. Probably crashed into someone’s kitchen window.


14 posted on 12/18/2024 12:43:58 PM PST by fidelis (Ecce Crucem Domini! Fugite partes adversae! Vicit Leo de tribu Juda, Radix David! Alleluia!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

15 posted on 12/18/2024 12:46:41 PM PST by gundog (It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: BenLurkin

IBPFTF? Huh?


16 posted on 12/18/2024 12:51:00 PM PST by null and void (Regarding the second Trump presidency, everyone who isn’t terrified is thankful!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: gundog

Looks like Luigi the CEO murderer “educated” dude.


17 posted on 12/18/2024 12:51:38 PM PST by FlingWingFlyer (With a Congress that half of which is made up of foreigners and refugees, why do we need a U.N.?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: GrandJediMasterYoda

Much better shape than she tho


18 posted on 12/18/2024 12:53:40 PM PST by Rannug (When you're dead, you're dead. Until then fight with everything you have.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: GrandJediMasterYoda

Much better shape than she tho


19 posted on 12/18/2024 12:53:44 PM PST by Rannug (When you're dead, you're dead. Until then fight with everything you have.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: BenLurkin

LOL


20 posted on 12/18/2024 1:05:05 PM PST by enumerated (81 million votes my ass)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-29 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson