Researchers unearth 46,000-year-old specimen in one of Earth's coldest locations

In 2018, local fossil ivory hunters tunneled into permafrost in northeastern Sibera and they came across a remarkable discovery.

What they unearthed nearly 500-lateral feet (150 meters) and 23-feet (seven meters) deep underground was the carcass of a bird, and animal to be 46,000 years old.

The 46,000-year-old bird was discovered nearly completely intact in 2018. (Kennedy News/Love Dalén)

The frozen bird was then given to paleontologist Love Dalén and other researchers at the Swedish Museum of Natural History to understand more about the newly found animal.

The researchers believe the species is an ancestor of the horned lark and it's the first of its kind to be discovered.

According to the study, which was published Feb. 21, on Nature.com, researchers believe that the bird is an ancestor to two subspecies: a lark found in northern Russia and a lark found in Mongolia.

One of the biggest takeaways is that the carcass was unearthed almost completely intact, according to the study, making it one of the best-preserved ancient specimens ever discovered.

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The bird is also believed to be part of the genus Eremophila, but the evolution of this species had been unknown until recently.

"No autopsy has been done, but I think we can conclude its death likely wasn't violent and it must have been frozen relatively quickly because otherwise it falls apart," Love Dalén of the Swedish Museum of Natural History told CNN.

(Kennedy News/Love Dalén)

The bird was found near the village of Belaya Gora, located in the brutally cold climate of Yakutia, an area in northeastern Siberia known as the "Pole of Cold."

"The Siberian 'Pole of Cold' is located within the Sakha Republic, or Yakutia, in northeastern Asia," AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Jim Andrews explained for a story earlier this year. "In winter, it is the coldest inhabited area on Earth -- only the tops of the great Antarctica and Greenland ice sheets are colder."

Average temperatures in January and February are around minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit, but forecasters say it can easily become as cold as minus 60 degrees F or more.

"This finding implies that the climatic changes that took place at the end of the last Ice Age led to formation of new subspecies," Dalén told CNN.

A modern-day horned lark. (Tom Koerner/USFWS on Flickr)

In the last few years, multiple well-preserved animals have been found around the same region buried in permafrost. Some of these specimens have included a 42,000-year-old foal in 2018 which was described as the most well-preserved Ice Age animal ever unearthed, and an 18,000-year-old puppy in 2019.

Permafrost is ground that is at or below-freezing temperatures all year long that is found in Arctic regions. Permafrost can range between very thin to very thick into the ground.

"There could be permafrost that is greater than 100,000, even [1 million], years old," said Andrews.

The research group said it now plans to start mapping the entire genome, so it can be compared to the genomes of other subspecies of the horned lark.

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