Found the bird preserved naturally in the permafrost, 46,000 years intact

A team of professional fossil hunters recently found the body of a perfectly preserved bird in an eternal ice block near the ancient village of Belaya Gora, in northeastern Siberia.

The body of the bird was so well preserved that initially when the hunters discovered it was determined that the bird had just died not long before. However, one member of the group found unusual features from the bird and decided to take it for inspection. The end result surprised and surprised them: This bird died about 46,000 years ago.

Responsible for the appraisal of this unique 'mummy' are Nicolas Dussex and Love Dalén, two experienced paleontologists from the Swedish Museum of Natural History. Using a carbon isotopic dating method, the researchers confirmed that the bird had fluttered in the sky about 46,000 years ago, while genetic analysis showed it could be is a seaside lark (or horned lark). The research results were recently published in the prestigious scientific journal Communications Biology.

Share with CNN, Mr. Dalén said that the mud may have gradually deposited, or at least the ground must be relatively stable for the birds to be preserved in such a good state. This is an extremely rare phenomenon for a specimen of this size.

The researchers believe that this bird may be the ancestor of two extant subspecies that exist in northern Russia and the vast steppes of Mongolia. By further analysis of the bird's genome, they were able to determine the evolutionary speed of the species.

This is not the first cryopreserved mummy found in Siberia. Scientists have previously found the remains of mammoths, woolly rhinos and even an 18,000-year-old frozen puppy, however with a mummy the size of a bird. is the first case.

New discoveries about Siberian icy history are expected to paint a clearer, more vivid picture of the impact of climate change over the last hundreds and thousands of years.