The head of an Ice Age wolf, at the Mammoth Fauna Study Department at the Academy of Sciences of Yakutia, Russia, June 10, 2019.
Specialists believe the wolf walked the earth about 40,000 years ago, but thanks to Siberia’s frozen permafrost its brain, fur, tissues and even its tongue have been ideally preserved, as scientific investigations are underway after it was found in August 2018.
Scientists said it was an adult, about 25% larger than today’s wolves, but did not say whether it was male or female. Valery Plotnikov, a head researcher at the regional branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said the mammal belonged to an ancient subspecies of wolf that existed at the same time as the mammoths and became extinct alongside them.
Plotnikov called the discovery unusual because scientists previously only had found wolf skulls without tissues or any of it’s fur, while this head has ears, a tongue and a flawlessly preserved brain.
