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List of Ice Age species preserved as permafrost mummies

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Ca. 37,000-year-old cub of Homotherium latidens found near the Badyarikha River, Siberia.

This is a list of Ice Age species preserved as permafrost mummies. It includes all known species that have had their tissues partially preserved within the permafrost layer of the Arctic and Subarctic. Most went extinct during the Late Pleistocene extinctions while some are still extant today. They have been listed to the most specific known taxonomic rank.

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Permafrost mummies provide crucial insights into the physiology and life histories of Pleistocene organisms, due to how well the preservation process keeps the specimens from decomposing. The constant presence of permafrost is able to preserve the soft tissues of organisms through a process similar to freeze-drying.[1] With such complete preservation of tissues, it is possible to determine numerous things from the such as: DNA, eDNA,[2] evolutionary history,[3] gut contents,[4] and trophic dynamics.[5] Studies have even shown that the process is so complete there is evidence of nucleic activity.[6]

Some of these specimens are on display at the Kingdom of the Permafrost museum near Yakutsk.[7]

(E) - denote an extinct species or subspecies

Artiodactyla (Even-toed ungulates)

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"Blue Babe", 36,000-year-old mummy of a male steppe bison from Fairbanks, Alaska.

Bovidae (Bovines)

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Cervidae (Deer)

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Carnivora

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"Sparta", a 28,000 year old mummified female cave lion cub from the banks of the Semyuelyakh River in Siberia.

Canidae (Dogs)

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Felidae (Cats)

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Mustelidae

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  • Mustela nigripes, Black-footed ferret[15]
  • Gulo gulo, Wolverine (first attributed to the putative extinct subspecies G. g. berelekhii,[16] which is probably a junior synonym of the extant subspecies G. g. jacutensis[5])

Lagomorpha

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Ochotonidae (Pika)

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Leporidae (Rabbits and hares)

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Perissodactyla (Odd-toed ungulates)

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Mummified remains of a woolly rhinoceros found in the Vilyuy River, Siberia in 1771.

Equidae (Horses)

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Rhinocerotidae (Rhinoceroses)

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Proboscidea

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Elephantidae (Elephants)

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"Dima", a 37,000-year-old mammoth calf found near the Kirgiljach River, Siberia.

Rodentia (Rodents)

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Cricetidae

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Sciuridae (Squirrels)

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Passeriformes (Perching Birds)

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Alaudidae (Larks)

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References

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  1. ^ a b Harington, C. R. (2007-01-01), "Vertebrate Records | Late Pleistocene Mummified Mammals", in Elias, Scott A. (ed.), Encyclopedia of Quaternary Science, Oxford: Elsevier, pp. 3197–3202, doi:10.1016/b0-44-452747-8/00267-2, ISBN 978-0-444-52747-9, retrieved 2024-02-29
  2. ^ Kjær, Kurt H.; Winther Pedersen, Mikkel; De Sanctis, Bianca; De Cahsan, Binia; Korneliussen, Thorfinn S.; Michelsen, Christian S.; Sand, Karina K.; Jelavić, Stanislav; Ruter, Anthony H.; Schmidt, Astrid M. A.; Kjeldsen, Kristian K.; Tesakov, Alexey S.; Snowball, Ian; Gosse, John C.; Alsos, Inger G. (2022). "A 2-million-year-old ecosystem in Greenland uncovered by environmental DNA". Nature. 612 (7939): 283–291. Bibcode:2022Natur.612..283K. doi:10.1038/s41586-022-05453-y. ISSN 1476-4687. PMC 9729109. PMID 36477129.
  3. ^ Orlando, Ludovic; Ginolhac, Aurélien; Zhang, Guojie; Froese, Duane; Albrechtsen, Anders; Stiller, Mathias; Schubert, Mikkel; Cappellini, Enrico; Petersen, Bent; Moltke, Ida; Johnson, Philip L. F.; Fumagalli, Matteo; Vilstrup, Julia T.; Raghavan, Maanasa; Korneliussen, Thorfinn (2013). "Recalibrating Equus evolution using the genome sequence of an early Middle Pleistocene horse". Nature. 499 (7456): 74–78. Bibcode:2013Natur.499...74O. doi:10.1038/nature12323. ISSN 1476-4687. PMID 23803765.
  4. ^ a b Rudaya, Natalia; Protopopov, Albert; Trofimova, Svetlana; Plotnikov, Valery; Zhilich, Snezhana (2015). "Landscapes of the 'Yuka' mammoth habitat: A palaeobotanical approach". Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology. 214: 1–8. Bibcode:2015RPaPa.214....1R. doi:10.1016/j.revpalbo.2014.12.003. ISSN 0034-6667.
  5. ^ a b Diedrich, Cajus G. (2022). "Thick skin cutters of Siberian frozen mummies—The coevolutionary adaptation of Eurasian Ice Age spotted hyenas". Acta Zoologica. 103 (2): 220–241. doi:10.1111/azo.12366. ISSN 0001-7272.
  6. ^ Yamagata, Kazuo; Nagai, Kouhei; Miyamoto, Hiroshi; Anzai, Masayuki; Kato, Hiromi; Miyamoto, Kei; Kurosaka, Satoshi; Azuma, Rika; Kolodeznikov, Igor I.; Protopopov, Albert V.; Plotnikov, Valerii V.; Kobayashi, Hisato; Kawahara-Miki, Ryouka; Kono, Tomohiro; Uchida, Masao (2019-03-11). "Signs of biological activities of 28,000-year-old mammoth nuclei in mouse oocytes visualized by live-cell imaging". Scientific Reports. 9 (1): 4050. Bibcode:2019NatSR...9.4050Y. doi:10.1038/s41598-019-40546-1. ISSN 2045-2322. PMC 6411884. PMID 30858410.
  7. ^ Magazine, Smithsonian; Fessenden, Maris. "Ice Age Cave Lion Cubs and a Look Back at Permafrost Mummies". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 2024-04-14.
  8. ^ Kirillova, Irina V.; Zanina, Oksana G.; Chernova, Olga F.; Lapteva, Elena G.; Trofimova, Svetlana S.; Lebedev, Vladimir S.; Tiunov, Alexei V.; Soares, Andre E. R.; Shidlovskiy, Fedor K.; Shapiro, Beth (September 2015). "An ancient bison from the mouth of the Rauchua River (Chukotka, Russia)". Quaternary Research. 84 (2): 232–245. Bibcode:2015QuRes..84..232K. doi:10.1016/j.yqres.2015.06.003. ISSN 0033-5894.
  9. ^ Lent, P. C. (1999). Muskoxen and their hunters: A history (Vol. 5). University of Oklahoma Press.
  10. ^ a b c d Guthrie, R. Dale. Frozen Fauna of the Mammoth Steppe: The Story of Blue Babe. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
  11. ^ Meachen, Julie; Wooller, Matthew J.; Barst, Benjamin D.; Funck, Juliette; Crann, Carley; Heath, Jess; Cassatt-Johnstone, Molly; Shapiro, Beth; Hall, Elizabeth; Hewitson, Susan; Zazula, Grant (2020). "A mummified Pleistocene gray wolf pup". Current Biology. 30 (24): R1467–R1468. Bibcode:2020CBio...30R1467M. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2020.11.011. ISSN 0960-9822. PMID 33352124.
  12. ^ Lopatin, A. V.; Sotnikova, M. V.; Klimovsky, A. I.; Lavrov, A. V.; Protopopov, A. V.; Gimranov, D. O.; Parkhomchuk, E. V. (2024-11-14). "Mummy of a juvenile sabre-toothed cat Homotherium latidens from the Upper Pleistocene of Siberia". Scientific Reports. 14 (1). doi:10.1038/s41598-024-79546-1. ISSN 2045-2322. PMC 11564651.
  13. ^ Zimmerman, M. R. (1996). Mummies of the Arctic regions. In Human Mummies: A Global Survey of their Status and the Techniques of Conservation (pp. 83-92). Vienna: Springer Vienna.
  14. ^ "Extinct lion cubs found in Siberia are up to 55,000 years old - latest test results reveal". siberiantimes.com. Retrieved 2024-02-29.
  15. ^ Youngman, P. M. (1994-05-31). "Beringian Ferrets: Mummies, Biogeography, and Systematics". Journal of Mammalogy. 75 (2): 454–461. doi:10.2307/1382567. ISSN 1545-1542. JSTOR 1382567.
  16. ^ Baryshnikov, G. F. (2015). Late pleistocene Ursidae and Mustelidae remains (Mammalia, Carnivora) from Geographical Society Cave in the Russian Far East. Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Science (published November 1, 2015).
  17. ^ a b c Potapova, O., & Potapov, E. (2024). Late Pleistocene mummified mammals. Encyclopedia of Quaternary Science, https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-323-99931-1.00275-0
  18. ^ Guthrie, R. D. (1973-12-14). "Mummified Pika (Ochotona) Carcass and Dung Pellets from Pleistocene Deposits in Interior Alaska". Journal of Mammalogy. 54 (4): 970–971. doi:10.2307/1379093. ISSN 1545-1542. JSTOR 1379093.
  19. ^ Boeskorov, G. G., Chernova, O. F., & Shchelchkova, M. V. (2023, May). First Find of a Frozen Mummy of the Fossil Don Hare Lepus tanaiticus (Leporidae, Lagomorpha) from the Pleistocene of Yakutia. In Doklady Earth Sciences (Vol. 510, No. 1, pp. 298-302). Moscow: Pleiades Publishing.
  20. ^ "Perfectly-preserved ancient foal is shown to the world for the first time". siberiantimes.com. Retrieved 2024-02-29.
  21. ^ Boeskorov, Gennady G.; Lazarev, Peter A.; Sher, Andrei V.; Davydov, Sergei P.; Bakulina, Nadezhda T.; Shchelchkova, Marina V.; Binladen, Jonas; Willerslev, Eske; Buigues, Bernard; Tikhonov, Alexey N. (2011-08-01). "Woolly rhino discovery in the lower Kolyma River". Quaternary Science Reviews. Beringia and Beyond: Papers Celebrating the Scientific Career of Andrei Vladimirovich Sher, 1939–2008. 30 (17): 2262–2272. Bibcode:2011QSRv...30.2262B. doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2011.02.010. ISSN 0277-3791.
  22. ^ "30,000 year-old arctic ground squirrel discovered in the Yukon". Yukon News. 2023-04-06. Retrieved 2024-04-14.
  23. ^ Dussex, Nicolas; Stanton, David W. G.; Sigeman, Hanna; Ericson, Per G. P.; Gill, Jacquelyn; Fisher, Daniel C.; Protopopov, Albert V.; Herridge, Victoria L.; Plotnikov, Valery; Hansson, Bengt; Dalén, Love (2020-02-21). "Biomolecular analyses reveal the age, sex and species identity of a near-intact Pleistocene bird carcass". Communications Biology. 3 (1): 84. doi:10.1038/s42003-020-0806-7. ISSN 2399-3642. PMC 7035339. PMID 32081985.
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