Scientists uncover secrets of Ice Age bear found in permafrost

A brown bear that was almost perfectly preserved in the frozen wild of eastern Siberia for 3,500 years has undergone a necropsy by a team of scientists after it was found by reindeer herders on a deserted island in the Arctic.

“This find is truly unique: a complete carcass of an ancient brown bear,” said Maxim Cheprasov, head of the laboratory at the Lazarev Mammoth Museum Laboratory at the North-Eastern Federal University in Yakutsk, eastern Siberia.

The female bear was discovered by reindeer herders in 2020 emerging from the permafrost on Bolshoy Lyakhovsky Island, part of the New Siberian archipelago about 4,600 kilometers east of Moscow.

Because it was found on the eastern side of the Bolshoy Etherican River, it was named Etheric brown bear.

The extreme temperatures helped preserve the bear’s soft tissue for 3,460 years, as well as the remains of its last food – bird feathers and plants. The bear is described as being 1.55 meters (5.09 feet) tall and weighing almost 78 kilograms.

Brain, soft tissues, internal organs are preserved

“For the first time, a carcass with soft tissue has fallen into the hands of scientists, giving us the opportunity to study internal organs and examine the brain,” said Cheprasov.

A scientific team in Siberia cut through the tough skin, allowing scientists to examine the brain, internal organs and conduct various cellular, microbiological, virological and genetic studies.

The pink tissue and yellow fat of the bear were clearly visible when the team dissected the ancient animal.

They also sawed through its skull, using a vacuum cleaner to suck up the dust of the skull bones, before extracting its brain.

Bear’s age, genetics, cause of death determined

“Genetic analysis has shown that bears do not differ in their mitochondrial DNA from modern bears from northeastern Russia – Yakutia and Chukotka,” said Cheprasov.

He said the bear was 2 to 3 years old when it died from an injury to its spinal column.

However, it is unclear how the bear ended up on the island, which is now separated from the mainland by a 50-kilometer strait. It may have crossed the ice, swam, or the island is still part of the mainland.

The Lyakhovsky Islands contain some of the richest paleontological treasures in the world, attracting scientists and ivory traders hunting woolly mammoths.