You may not have hear of the Yakutia region of northerly Siberia , but a peck seems to happen of interest there , despite its cold , unforgiving environment .
Now , another incredible discovery has been discover : the perfectly preserved remains of a 40,000 - yr - older foal .
The tiny fossilized specimen was only 2 or 3 calendar month old when it pass away back in the Upper Paleolithic ( Late Stone Age ) , but its amazing condition , thanks to the permafrost it ’s spent the last few millennia in , is incredibly rare and highly uncaused .
“ The foal has no damage to its carcass , even its hair is preserve , which is incredibly rarefied for such ancient discovery , ” the research worker toldThe Siberian Times .
Discovered by local anaesthetic in the ominously named“Door to the Underworld ” , a elephantine crack in the earth otherwise known as the Batagaika crater , it was excavated by researcher from Russia and Japan , and taken to the Mammoth Museum at the North - Eastern Federal University in Yakutsk .
" This is the first uncovering in the earth of a prehistoric horse of such a immature years and with such an amazing grade of preservation , " said the museum ’s headspring , Semyon Grigoryev .
“ [ T]his is the foal of a type of horse that populated Yakutia between 30,000 and 40,000 geezerhood ago , " he added . “ This was call in the Lenskaya , or Lena Horse ( genus Equus lenensis ) , genetically unlike from those living in Yakutia now . ”
The foal does n’t seem to have any obvious injuries or cause of death . They suspect it could have drown after fall into a natural trap . To find out more , they have taken sample of hair’s-breadth , biological fluids , and soil to see what else they can find out , including hopefully its dieting . For a creature that go extinct during the Pleistocene , it still has a tale to tell .
Now pardon me , while I pack in journalism , take up paleontology , and up stick to Siberia . It ’s where it ’s all happening .
