Preserved Head of a 40,000-year-old Wolf was Discovered in Siberia

An ideally preserved head of a wolf who died 40,000 years ago on the territory of today's Siberia was found and researched by Russian scientists, according to Reuters.

Due to the low temperatures, coat, teeth, brain and tissues have been largely preserved.

An ancient wolf's head was discovered last summer on the banks of the Tirehthyah River, near the Arctic Polar Circle of a resident of Yakutia. The findings were passed on to the Yukushi Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, where they sent samples across borders, and with the help of scientists from Japan and Sweden it was found that the animal had died about 40,000 years ago.

The head was shown a few days ago, and the cadres show that it is much larger than that of modern wolves.

Valery Plotnikov from the local branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences says that the animal belongs to an ancient subspecies that lived and disappeared along with the mammoths.

The discovery is unique because the old wolf head is with preserved tissues and fur, and even has ears, tongue and brains. Only the eyes of the animal are missing.

Now, the head has to go through a plaque procedure that removes water and fat and replaces it with plastic. This will prevent the decomposition and its exposure at normal temperatures and will keep the tissues for scientific purposes, Plotnikov explains.