A necropsy of the perfectly preserved and mummified bear found in 2020 in Siberian permafrost reveals that it is not what scientists previously thought it was. They identified it initially as an extinct bear from 22,000 years ago, but a recent analysis showed it is a 3,500-year-old brown bear.
The melting Siberian permafrost showed that the ancient brown bear roamed the planet centuries before the common era, CBS News reported. Scientists are cutting the bear open in hopes that it will become a "breakthrough of ancient animal study."
Not an Extinct Bear Species
According to Live Science, reindeer herders discovered the bear's remains on Bolshoy Lyakhovsky Island, a remote Russian island in the East Siberian Sea, which included the bear's entire skin, hair, teeth, nose, claws, body fat, and internal organs.
The Etherican bear, named after the neighboring Bolshoy Etherican River, was first thought to be the extinct cave bear (Ursus spelaeus). Fossils of this species suggest they were enormous ancient bears that were related to brown bears (Ursus arctos) and polar bears (Ursus maritimus).
But a subsequent investigation found that their ideas about the Etherican bear were incorrect. The beast was a brown bear that lived roughly 3,460 years ago, according to a statement issued by the NEFU team in December 2022.
The NEFU team recently performed a comprehensive necropsy, or animal autopsy, on the Etherican bear, which revealed more about the enigmatic mummies.
They found that the bear was a female that stood 5.2 feet (1.6 m) tall and weighed around 172 pounds (78 kg), indicating that it was probably 2 to 3 years old when it died. It is unknown how the bear died, but its mummies revealed extensive spinal injuries, which most likely contributed to its death.
Moreover, the Etherican bear was so well preserved that its stomach contents were still intact. The team concludes that it feasted on a mix of unidentified plants and birds after seeing some feathers inside the bear's stomach. The findings fit modern bears, which are known to be omnivores. They also removed its well-preserved brain to study in the future.
Siberia's Melting Permafrost
From ancient woolly mammoths, woolly rhinoceros, and cave lions, to cave bears, Siberia's melting permafrost is revealing well-preserved remains of animals that lived during the last ice age.
Not only that, Ancient Origins reports that the melting permafrost has also unearthed other species from recent periods, such as ancient horses, bison, and wolves. A well-preserved carcass of a cave lion cub was discovered in Siberian permafrost in 2015. The cub was thought to have been frozen for almost 28,000 years, making it one of the best-preserved Ice Period mammals ever discovered.
Also, a well-preserved head of a steppe wolf was unearthed in 2018 that is believed to be around 30,000 years old. The discovery of these animals provides new insights into past ecosystems and how the world has changed over time. More so, it allows studying genetic material that has been preserved in permafrost that could help understanding in evolution.
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