At first glance, it looks like a simple brown rock, but once you take a closer look at it, the claws peek out, and if you are more detailed, you can see a pair of ears as well, then the question arises, what creature are we looking at? After years of being found, X-rays have finally unraveled the mystery of the mummified creature.
The brown ball, now known to be a mummified creature, was found by a gold miner in the Klondike fields near the Yukon. While conducting his mining exploration activities in 2018, the man found a mysterious object and after discovering that it could be an animal, he took it to veterinarian Jess Heath, for further investigation.
Most surprisingly, evidence suggests that the arctic ground squirrel walked the fields of Yukon 30,000 years ago when the Earth was going through the Ice Age. The permafrost has allowed paleontologists to find fossils from ancient times in perfect condition and thus give us an idea of what the creatures that inhabited the planet thousands of years ago were like.
Arctic Ground Squirrels
The squirrel species that hides under the frozen fur layer is the same as the one that currently lives in the Yukon Territory. The creature is more like marmots than tree squirrels; they make nests underground to hibernate during the winter.
Thanks to this behavior, many of these ice age nests have been found well preserved in the ice. However, very rarely are you lucky enough to find a complete, well-preserved arctic ground squirrel.
“I study bones all the time, and they’re exciting, they’re very good. But when you see an animal that’s perfectly preserved, that’s 30,000 years old, and you can see its face, its skin, its fur, and all that, it’s so visceral. It gives it so much life,” says Grant Zazula, a paleontologist with the Yukon government.
Story written in Spanish by Alejandra Martínez in Ecoosfera
