In 2021, residents of Yakutia in eastern Russia found the wolf in thick permafrost – ground that normally remains frozen year-round, but in many places has begun to melt as average global temperatures rise.
Now, researchers at the Northeastern Federal University in Yakutsk, Russia, are studying the mummified remains to learn more about the animal.
The frozen conditions helped in the perfect mummification and preservation of the Pleistocene predator. His teeth and most of his fur are still intact, as are some of his organs.
The wolf is intact, with teeth and fur. North Eastern Federal University
“It’s shocking, really,” Robert Losey, an anthropologist at the University of Alberta who was not involved in the research, told Business Insider.
“It’s the only full-grown Pleistocene wolf that’s ever been found, so that in itself is really remarkable and completely unique,” he added.
There is much to learn from such a well-preserved ancient animal, including its genetics, lifestyle, diet, and even what kind of ancient bacteria and viruses it had.
“Living bacteria can survive for thousands of years, which are a kind of witness to those ancient times,” said Artemy Goncharov, a researcher at the Institute of Experimental Medicine, in a translated statement.
The wolf’s stomach can hold the last meal and much more
Scientists are probing the wolf’s stomach for signs of its last meal and ancient microbes. North Eastern Federal University
This 44,000-year-old wolf likely belonged to an extinct species and was probably larger than modern wolves, Losey said. Studying the animal’s genome will help discover where it fits in the dog’s family tree.
After examining one of its teeth, scientists believe the wolf was an adult male. It probably hunted in a flat and cold environment full of mammoths, woolly rhinos, extinct horses, bison and reindeer.
The remains of some of these animals can also be left in the intestines of the wolf. The researchers took samples of the stomach and digestive tract to learn more and are awaiting the results.
Researchers can also be able to find out what functions the ancient microbes in the wolf’s gut performed and whether it had parasites, Losey said. If any of the microorganisms are unknown to science, they could play a role in the development of future drugs, the researchers said in the statement.
The discovery is just part of a larger collaboration to study other ancient animals, including fossil rabbits, a horse and a bear. Researchers have previously studied a wolf head from the Pleistocene era and have another wolf fossil awaiting dissection.
Ancient animals and infectious agents are melting
Scientists have seen traces of other viruses in permafrost. jitendrajadhav/Getty Images
As the world’s permafrost melts due to rising global temperatures, more ancient creatures like this are reappearing. In the Yukon, for example, paleontologists are still puzzling over a perfectly preserved mammoth discovered in 2022.
However, not everything in permafrost is so harmless.
In 2016, melting on Siberia’s Yamal Peninsula released anthrax from a once-frozen reindeer carcass, causing an outbreak that infected 36 people and killed a child.
Researchers fear that other pathogens may be sleeping on the tundra, as a slowly warming world melts toward them.
Last year, researcher Jean-Michel Claverie announced that he had resurrected a 48,000-year-old virus they found in Siberian permafrost. It can still infect unicellular amoebae.
“We see these amoeba-infecting viruses as surrogates for all the other possible viruses that might be in the permafrost,” Claverie told CNN at the time. “We see traces of many, many, many other viruses. So we know they’re there. We don’t know for sure that they’re still alive.”
Any ancient viruses or bacteria in the Yakutia wolf’s gut could help researchers better understand the microbes hiding inside the permafrost creatures.