The Carcass Of An Extinct Cave Bear Thought To Be Over 22,000 Years Old Was Discovered In Remote Siberia

High above the Arctic Circle lies a group of remote Siberian islands where ivory traders and scientists brave sub-zero temperatures to search for extinct creatures preserved in the melting permafrost.

Those Lyakhovsky Islands just yielded an unprecedented find: a perfectly preserved adult cave bear — with its nose, teeth, and internal organs still intact.

Scientists think the cave bear died 22,000 to 39,500 years ago. Its species, Ursus spelaeus, lived during the last ice age and then went extinct 15,000 years ago.

The carcass was first discovered by reindeer herders, who alerted researchers at the North-Eastern Federal University in Yakutsk, Russia.

"This is the first and only find of its kind — a whole bear carcass with soft tissues," a NEFU researcher, Lena Grigorieva, said in a press release on Monday announcing the find.

Until now, scientists had uncovered only cave bears' skeletons — never a wholly intact specimen.

A carcass dating back thousands of years

A carcass of an ice-age cave bear found on Great Lyakhovsky Island between the Laptev Sea and the East Siberian Sea in northern Russia. 

North-Eastern Federal University via AP

Cave bears roamed while most of Europe and Asia were covered in glaciers, sharing the landscape with mammoths, saber-toothed cats, and giant ground sloths.

The creatures were massive: Males could weigh up to 1 ton, or 2,200 pounds, which is about 500 pounds heavier than the largest bears alive today.Greigorieva and his colleagues said the bear's age was only an estimate until carbon dating could add precision. They also hope to study the carcass in further detail and perform a genetic analysis.

A carcass of an ice-age cave bear found on Great Lyakhovsky Island between the Laptev Sea and the East Siberian Sea in northern Russia. 

North-Eastern Federal University via AP

Another cave bear's carcass — a cub — was recently found in Yakutia, Russia, so scientists hope to compare the two animals' DNA.

Thawing Siberian permafrost has yielded other discoveries, too

As the planet warms, the Siberian permafrost — ground that remains frozen all year — is beginning to thaw. As it melts, ice-age creatures entombed within are starting to be unearthed after lying frozen for tens of thousands of years.

The Lyakhovsky Islands, where the bear was found, are replete with remains of woolly mammoths from the last ice age.Last year, scientists discovered a 40,000-year-old severed wolf's head, complete with fur, teeth, brain, and facial tissue on the banks of a river in Yakutia.

A severed wolf's head dating back to the ice age was found in Russia. 

Reuters

Other ancient creatures found in the Yakutia ice include two extinct cave-lion cubs and a 42,000-year-old foal.