Extinct Baby Horse From 40,000 Years Ago Found Well-Preserved In Siberian Permafrost

A baby horse that lived around 40,000 years ago during the Upper Paleolithic era has been discovered in an extremely well-preserved condition in Russia.

The foal, which belongs to a now-extinct species, was spotted by locals in the permafrost – the frozen subsurface layer of soil – of Siberia’s tadpole-shaped Batagaika crater and later unearthed by an international team of paleontologists hailing from Japan and Russia.

It would have been some 2-3 months old at the time of death, according to the researchers involved in the excavation that ran from Aug. 9-14. They took the baby horse to the museum at North-Eastern Federal University in Yakutsk for further analysis.

On Aug. 23, the university released a series of photographs giving a close look at the detailed body features of the foal that stood 38-inches tall at shoulders.

“This is the first find in the world find of a pre-historic horse of such a young age and with such an amazing level of preservation,” Semyon Grigoryev, the head of the museum, told the Siberian Times after the discovery. “The foal has completely preserved dark-brown hair, its tail, and mane, as well as all internal organs.”

Initial analysis suggested it was a member of the Equus lenensis species, also known as the Lena horse. They lived in the same region tens of thousands of years ago, but have now gone extinct. The team believes the below zero-degree temperatures prevailing in the permafrost helped with the preservation of the horse in such great condition.

However, the work on the long-extinct horse is still not over. The researchers have taken samples of hair, liquids and biological fluids to gain more insight into the animal. They have taken soil samples from where it was preserved to paint a complete picture of the environment of that period and determine when exactly it lived. Also, they plan on conducting a detailed autopsy to find the cause of its death.

The baby horse doesn’t have any signs or marks of an injury, which led the researchers to think it was not killed intentionally.

“Experts that took part in the expedition came up with a version that the foal could have drowned after getting into some kind of a natural trap,” Grigory Savvinov, the deputy head of the North-Eastern Federal University, told the news outlet.

Among other things, the study would also include an analysis of the content in the horse’s stomach, something that could provide more insight into dietary habits.

This isn’t the first discovery from the Siberian permafrost. The same research work uncovered remains of an ancient mammoth with soft-tissues and other expeditions from the past have led to the discovery of an extremely well preserved prehistoric lion cub as well as still-living roundworms.