List of Ice Age species preserved as permafrost mummies

This is a list of Ice Age species preserved as permafrost mummies. It includes all known species that have had their tissues partially preserved within the permafrost layer of the Arctic and Subarctic. Most went extinct during the Late Pleistocene extinctions while some are still extant today. They have been listed to the most specific known taxonomic rank.

Article body

Permafrost mummies provide crucial insights into the physiology and life histories of Pleistocene organisms, due to how well the preservation process keeps the specimens from decomposing. The constant presence of permafrost is able to preserve the soft tissues of organisms through a process similar to freeze-drying.^[1] With such complete preservation of tissues, it is possible to determine numerous things from the such as: DNA, eDNA,^[2] evolutionary history,^[3] gut contents,^[4] and trophic dynamics.^[5] Studies have even shown that the process is so complete there is evidence of nucleic activity.^[6]

Some of these specimens are on display at the Kingdom of the Permafrost museum near Yakutsk.^[7]

(E) - denote an extinct species

Artiodactyla (Even-toed ungulates)

Bovidae (Bovines)

Bison priscus, Steppe bison (E)^[8]
Bootherium bombifrons, Helmeted muskox (E)^[1]

Cervidae (Deer)

Cervalces latifrons, Giant Moose (E)^[9]
Rangifer tarandus, Reindeer^[9]

Carnivora

Canidae (Dogs)

Canis lupus, Grey wolf^[10]

Felidae (Cats)

Panthera spelaea, Cave lion (E)^[11]

Mustelidae

Mustela nigripes, Black-footed ferret^[12]
Gulo gulo berelekhii, Wolverine (E)^[13]

Ursidae (Bears)

Ursus spelaeus, Cave bear (E)^[14]

Lagomorpha

Ochotonidae (Pika)

Ochotona princeps, American pika^[15]

Leporidae (Rabbits and hares)

Lepus americanus, Snowshoe hare^[9]

Perissodactyla (Odd-toed ungulates)

Equidae (Horses)

Equus lambei, Yukon horse (E)^[9]
Equus lenensis, Lena horse (E)^[16]
Equus spp. (E)^[17]^[18]

Rhinocerotidae (Rhinoceroses)

Coelodonta antiquitatis, Wooly rhinoceros (E)^[19]

Proboscidea

Elephantidae (Elephants)

Mammuthus primigenius, Wooly mammoth (E)^[4]

Rodentia (Rodents)

Cricetidae

Microtus spp.^[9]

Sciuridae (Squirrels)

Urocitellus parryii, Artic ground squirrel^[20]

Passeriformes (Perching Birds)

Alaudidae (Larks)

Eremophila spp. Ancestral horned lark (E)^[21]

References

^ ^a ^b Harington, C. R. (2007-01-01), "Vertebrate Records | Late Pleistocene Mummified Mammals", in Elias, Scott A. (ed.), Encyclopedia of Quaternary Science, Oxford: Elsevier, pp. 3197–3202, doi:10.1016/b0-44-452747-8/00267-2, ISBN 978-0-444-52747-9, retrieved 2024-02-29
^ Kjær, Kurt H.; Winther Pedersen, Mikkel; De Sanctis, Bianca; De Cahsan, Binia; Korneliussen, Thorfinn S.; Michelsen, Christian S.; Sand, Karina K.; Jelavić, Stanislav; Ruter, Anthony H.; Schmidt, Astrid M. A.; Kjeldsen, Kristian K.; Tesakov, Alexey S.; Snowball, Ian; Gosse, John C.; Alsos, Inger G. (2022). "A 2-million-year-old ecosystem in Greenland uncovered by environmental DNA". Nature. 612 (7939): 283–291. Bibcode:2022Natur.612..283K. doi:10.1038/s41586-022-05453-y. ISSN 1476-4687. PMC 9729109. PMID 36477129.
^ Orlando, Ludovic; Ginolhac, Aurélien; Zhang, Guojie; Froese, Duane; Albrechtsen, Anders; Stiller, Mathias; Schubert, Mikkel; Cappellini, Enrico; Petersen, Bent; Moltke, Ida; Johnson, Philip L. F.; Fumagalli, Matteo; Vilstrup, Julia T.; Raghavan, Maanasa; Korneliussen, Thorfinn (2013). "Recalibrating Equus evolution using the genome sequence of an early Middle Pleistocene horse". Nature. 499 (7456): 74–78. Bibcode:2013Natur.499...74O. doi:10.1038/nature12323. ISSN 1476-4687. PMID 23803765.
^ ^a ^b Rudaya, Natalia; Protopopov, Albert; Trofimova, Svetlana; Plotnikov, Valery; Zhilich, Snezhana (2015). "Landscapes of the 'Yuka' mammoth habitat: A palaeobotanical approach". Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology. 214: 1–8. Bibcode:2015RPaPa.214....1R. doi:10.1016/j.revpalbo.2014.12.003. ISSN 0034-6667.
^ Diedrich, Cajus G. (2022). "Thick skin cutters of Siberian frozen mummies—The coevolutionary adaptation of Eurasian Ice Age spotted hyenas". Acta Zoologica. 103 (2): 220–241. doi:10.1111/azo.12366. ISSN 0001-7272.
^ Yamagata, Kazuo; Nagai, Kouhei; Miyamoto, Hiroshi; Anzai, Masayuki; Kato, Hiromi; Miyamoto, Kei; Kurosaka, Satoshi; Azuma, Rika; Kolodeznikov, Igor I.; Protopopov, Albert V.; Plotnikov, Valerii V.; Kobayashi, Hisato; Kawahara-Miki, Ryouka; Kono, Tomohiro; Uchida, Masao (2019-03-11). "Signs of biological activities of 28,000-year-old mammoth nuclei in mouse oocytes visualized by live-cell imaging". Scientific Reports. 9 (1): 4050. Bibcode:2019NatSR...9.4050Y. doi:10.1038/s41598-019-40546-1. ISSN 2045-2322. PMC 6411884. PMID 30858410.
^ Magazine, Smithsonian; Fessenden, Maris. "Ice Age Cave Lion Cubs and a Look Back at Permafrost Mummies". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 2024-04-14.
^ Kirillova, Irina V.; Zanina, Oksana G.; Chernova, Olga F.; Lapteva, Elena G.; Trofimova, Svetlana S.; Lebedev, Vladimir S.; Tiunov, Alexei V.; Soares, Andre E. R.; Shidlovskiy, Fedor K.; Shapiro, Beth (September 2015). "An ancient bison from the mouth of the Rauchua River (Chukotka, Russia)". Quaternary Research. 84 (2): 232–245. Bibcode:2015QuRes..84..232K. doi:10.1016/j.yqres.2015.06.003. ISSN 0033-5894.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Guthrie, R. Dale. Frozen Fauna of the Mammoth Steppe: The Story of Blue Babe. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
^ Meachen, Julie; Wooller, Matthew J.; Barst, Benjamin D.; Funck, Juliette; Crann, Carley; Heath, Jess; Cassatt-Johnstone, Molly; Shapiro, Beth; Hall, Elizabeth; Hewitson, Susan; Zazula, Grant (2020). "A mummified Pleistocene gray wolf pup". Current Biology. 30 (24): R1467–R1468. Bibcode:2020CBio...30R1467M. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2020.11.011. ISSN 0960-9822. PMID 33352124.
^ "Extinct lion cubs found in Siberia are up to 55,000 years old - latest test results reveal". siberiantimes.com. Retrieved 2024-02-29.
^ Youngman, P. M. (1994-05-31). "Beringian Ferrets: Mummies, Biogeography, and Systematics". Journal of Mammalogy. 75 (2): 454–461. doi:10.2307/1382567. ISSN 1545-1542. JSTOR 1382567.
^ Baryshnikov, G. F. (2015). Late pleistocene Ursidae and Mustelidae remains (Mammalia, Carnivora) from Geographical Society Cave in the Russian Far East. Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Science (published November 1, 2015).
^ России, Министерство образования и науки (14 September 2020). "Северо-Восточный федеральный университет им. М.К. Аммосова, СВФУ". Министерство образования и науки Российской Федерации. Retrieved 2024-02-29.
^ Guthrie, R. D. (1973-12-14). "Mummified Pika (Ochotona) Carcass and Dung Pellets from Pleistocene Deposits in Interior Alaska". Journal of Mammalogy. 54 (4): 970–971. doi:10.2307/1379093. ISSN 1545-1542. JSTOR 1379093.
^ "Perfectly-preserved ancient foal is shown to the world for the first time". siberiantimes.com. Retrieved 2024-02-29.
^ Boeskorov, Gennady G.; Potapova, Olga R.; Protopopov, Albert V.; Plotnikov, Valery V.; Maschenko, Eugeny N.; Shchelchkova, Marina V.; Petrova, Ekaterina A.; Kowalczyk, Rafal; van der Plicht, Johannes; Tikhonov, Alexey N. (2018-07-01). "A study of a frozen mummy of a wild horse from the Holocene of Yakutia, East Siberia, Russia". Mammal Research. 63 (3): 307–314. doi:10.1007/s13364-018-0362-4. ISSN 2199-241X.
^ Ukraintseva, Valentina V., ed. (2013), "The Selerikan horse", Mammoths and the Environment, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 87–105, doi:10.1017/cbo9781139225328.009, ISBN 978-1-107-02716-9, retrieved 2024-02-29
^ Boeskorov, Gennady G.; Lazarev, Peter A.; Sher, Andrei V.; Davydov, Sergei P.; Bakulina, Nadezhda T.; Shchelchkova, Marina V.; Binladen, Jonas; Willerslev, Eske; Buigues, Bernard; Tikhonov, Alexey N. (2011-08-01). "Woolly rhino discovery in the lower Kolyma River". Quaternary Science Reviews. Beringia and Beyond: Papers Celebrating the Scientific Career of Andrei Vladimirovich Sher, 1939–2008. 30 (17): 2262–2272. Bibcode:2011QSRv...30.2262B. doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2011.02.010. ISSN 0277-3791.
^ "30,000 year-old arctic ground squirrel discovered in the Yukon". Yukon News. 2023-04-06. Retrieved 2024-04-14.
^ Dussex, Nicolas; Stanton, David W. G.; Sigeman, Hanna; Ericson, Per G. P.; Gill, Jacquelyn; Fisher, Daniel C.; Protopopov, Albert V.; Herridge, Victoria L.; Plotnikov, Valery; Hansson, Bengt; Dalén, Love (2020-02-21). "Biomolecular analyses reveal the age, sex and species identity of a near-intact Pleistocene bird carcass". Communications Biology. 3 (1): 84. doi:10.1038/s42003-020-0806-7. ISSN 2399-3642. PMC 7035339. PMID 32081985.

[:1-1] Harington, C. R. (2007-01-01), "Vertebrate Records | Late Pleistocene Mummified Mammals", in Elias, Scott A. (ed.), Encyclopedia of Quaternary Science, Oxford: Elsevier, pp. 3197–3202, doi:10.1016/b0-44-452747-8/00267-2, ISBN 978-0-444-52747-9, retrieved 2024-02-29

[2] Kjær, Kurt H.; Winther Pedersen, Mikkel; De Sanctis, Bianca; De Cahsan, Binia; Korneliussen, Thorfinn S.; Michelsen, Christian S.; Sand, Karina K.; Jelavić, Stanislav; Ruter, Anthony H.; Schmidt, Astrid M. A.; Kjeldsen, Kristian K.; Tesakov, Alexey S.; Snowball, Ian; Gosse, John C.; Alsos, Inger G. (2022). "A 2-million-year-old ecosystem in Greenland uncovered by environmental DNA". Nature. 612 (7939): 283–291. Bibcode:2022Natur.612..283K. doi:10.1038/s41586-022-05453-y. ISSN 1476-4687. PMC 9729109. PMID 36477129.

[3] Orlando, Ludovic; Ginolhac, Aurélien; Zhang, Guojie; Froese, Duane; Albrechtsen, Anders; Stiller, Mathias; Schubert, Mikkel; Cappellini, Enrico; Petersen, Bent; Moltke, Ida; Johnson, Philip L. F.; Fumagalli, Matteo; Vilstrup, Julia T.; Raghavan, Maanasa; Korneliussen, Thorfinn (2013). "Recalibrating Equus evolution using the genome sequence of an early Middle Pleistocene horse". Nature. 499 (7456): 74–78. Bibcode:2013Natur.499...74O. doi:10.1038/nature12323. ISSN 1476-4687. PMID 23803765.

[:2-4] Rudaya, Natalia; Protopopov, Albert; Trofimova, Svetlana; Plotnikov, Valery; Zhilich, Snezhana (2015). "Landscapes of the 'Yuka' mammoth habitat: A palaeobotanical approach". Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology. 214: 1–8. Bibcode:2015RPaPa.214....1R. doi:10.1016/j.revpalbo.2014.12.003. ISSN 0034-6667.

[5] Diedrich, Cajus G. (2022). "Thick skin cutters of Siberian frozen mummies—The coevolutionary adaptation of Eurasian Ice Age spotted hyenas". Acta Zoologica. 103 (2): 220–241. doi:10.1111/azo.12366. ISSN 0001-7272.

[6] Yamagata, Kazuo; Nagai, Kouhei; Miyamoto, Hiroshi; Anzai, Masayuki; Kato, Hiromi; Miyamoto, Kei; Kurosaka, Satoshi; Azuma, Rika; Kolodeznikov, Igor I.; Protopopov, Albert V.; Plotnikov, Valerii V.; Kobayashi, Hisato; Kawahara-Miki, Ryouka; Kono, Tomohiro; Uchida, Masao (2019-03-11). "Signs of biological activities of 28,000-year-old mammoth nuclei in mouse oocytes visualized by live-cell imaging". Scientific Reports. 9 (1): 4050. Bibcode:2019NatSR...9.4050Y. doi:10.1038/s41598-019-40546-1. ISSN 2045-2322. PMC 6411884. PMID 30858410.

[7] Magazine, Smithsonian; Fessenden, Maris. "Ice Age Cave Lion Cubs and a Look Back at Permafrost Mummies". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 2024-04-14.

[8] Kirillova, Irina V.; Zanina, Oksana G.; Chernova, Olga F.; Lapteva, Elena G.; Trofimova, Svetlana S.; Lebedev, Vladimir S.; Tiunov, Alexei V.; Soares, Andre E. R.; Shidlovskiy, Fedor K.; Shapiro, Beth (September 2015). "An ancient bison from the mouth of the Rauchua River (Chukotka, Russia)". Quaternary Research. 84 (2): 232–245. Bibcode:2015QuRes..84..232K. doi:10.1016/j.yqres.2015.06.003. ISSN 0033-5894.

[:0-9] Guthrie, R. Dale. Frozen Fauna of the Mammoth Steppe: The Story of Blue Babe. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

[10] Meachen, Julie; Wooller, Matthew J.; Barst, Benjamin D.; Funck, Juliette; Crann, Carley; Heath, Jess; Cassatt-Johnstone, Molly; Shapiro, Beth; Hall, Elizabeth; Hewitson, Susan; Zazula, Grant (2020). "A mummified Pleistocene gray wolf pup". Current Biology. 30 (24): R1467–R1468. Bibcode:2020CBio...30R1467M. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2020.11.011. ISSN 0960-9822. PMID 33352124.

[11] "Extinct lion cubs found in Siberia are up to 55,000 years old - latest test results reveal". siberiantimes.com. Retrieved 2024-02-29.

[12] Youngman, P. M. (1994-05-31). "Beringian Ferrets: Mummies, Biogeography, and Systematics". Journal of Mammalogy. 75 (2): 454–461. doi:10.2307/1382567. ISSN 1545-1542. JSTOR 1382567.

[13] Baryshnikov, G. F. (2015). Late pleistocene Ursidae and Mustelidae remains (Mammalia, Carnivora) from Geographical Society Cave in the Russian Far East. Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Science (published November 1, 2015).

[14] России, Министерство образования и науки (14 September 2020). "Северо-Восточный федеральный университет им. М.К. Аммосова, СВФУ". Министерство образования и науки Российской Федерации. Retrieved 2024-02-29.

[15] Guthrie, R. D. (1973-12-14). "Mummified Pika (Ochotona) Carcass and Dung Pellets from Pleistocene Deposits in Interior Alaska". Journal of Mammalogy. 54 (4): 970–971. doi:10.2307/1379093. ISSN 1545-1542. JSTOR 1379093.

[16] "Perfectly-preserved ancient foal is shown to the world for the first time". siberiantimes.com. Retrieved 2024-02-29.

[17] Boeskorov, Gennady G.; Potapova, Olga R.; Protopopov, Albert V.; Plotnikov, Valery V.; Maschenko, Eugeny N.; Shchelchkova, Marina V.; Petrova, Ekaterina A.; Kowalczyk, Rafal; van der Plicht, Johannes; Tikhonov, Alexey N. (2018-07-01). "A study of a frozen mummy of a wild horse from the Holocene of Yakutia, East Siberia, Russia". Mammal Research. 63 (3): 307–314. doi:10.1007/s13364-018-0362-4. ISSN 2199-241X.

[18] Ukraintseva, Valentina V., ed. (2013), "The Selerikan horse", Mammoths and the Environment, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 87–105, doi:10.1017/cbo9781139225328.009, ISBN 978-1-107-02716-9, retrieved 2024-02-29

[19] Boeskorov, Gennady G.; Lazarev, Peter A.; Sher, Andrei V.; Davydov, Sergei P.; Bakulina, Nadezhda T.; Shchelchkova, Marina V.; Binladen, Jonas; Willerslev, Eske; Buigues, Bernard; Tikhonov, Alexey N. (2011-08-01). "Woolly rhino discovery in the lower Kolyma River". Quaternary Science Reviews. Beringia and Beyond: Papers Celebrating the Scientific Career of Andrei Vladimirovich Sher, 1939–2008. 30 (17): 2262–2272. Bibcode:2011QSRv...30.2262B. doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2011.02.010. ISSN 0277-3791.

[20] "30,000 year-old arctic ground squirrel discovered in the Yukon". Yukon News. 2023-04-06. Retrieved 2024-04-14.

[21] Dussex, Nicolas; Stanton, David W. G.; Sigeman, Hanna; Ericson, Per G. P.; Gill, Jacquelyn; Fisher, Daniel C.; Protopopov, Albert V.; Herridge, Victoria L.; Plotnikov, Valery; Hansson, Bengt; Dalén, Love (2020-02-21). "Biomolecular analyses reveal the age, sex and species identity of a near-intact Pleistocene bird carcass". Communications Biology. 3 (1): 84. doi:10.1038/s42003-020-0806-7. ISSN 2399-3642. PMC 7035339. PMID 32081985.

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