YAKUTSK, February 22. /TASS/. Scientists in Yakutsk conducted an autopsy of an ancient brown bear carcass, which geological age is 3,400 years. It is the first research of a bear carcass with remaining soft tissues, Maxim Cheprasov of the Mammoth Museum at the North-Eastern Federal University told TASS.
"It is the first fossil bear with preserved soft tissues," he said. "Earlier, all fossil remains of bears were only sculls and a few bones."
The autopsy was conducted during an international scientific seminar at the university on February 21-22. The event featured leading Russian scientists and experts of the United Arab Emirates' Biotechnology Research Center (BRC).
It was for the first time that specialists had an opportunity to work with an object of the kind, the Russian expert continued. Scientists will take samples for histology, cellular, microbiology and virology studies; they will conduct anatomical and morphological studies and will extract the brain. The autopsy will show what the animal was eating and when it died.
Finding on island
In August, 2020, a group of deer herders found the carcass of an ancient bear at the coastline of the Bolshoy Lyakhovsky Island (the New Siberian Islands Archipelago) in Yakutia's north. During the international seminar, the Russian expert told the audience how the carcass was found - the carcass was partially frozen into the permafrost. Specialists extracted all the parts very accurately. The bear was found 8 km east of the Bolshoy Eterikan River's estuary, where back in 2003 was found another valuable object - the Lyakhovsky baby mammoth. "Thus, our decision was to name the discovered brown bear Eterikansky," the scientist said.
The scientists received the initial data as they cleaned the soil off the carcass: it was a female bear. "The animal's death was caused by a mechanical damage to the vertebral column, where the first lumbar vertebra separated from the second one. In order to identify the age [of the finding], we plan to carry out cross-dating in Novosibirsk," he continued.
Scientists have a few suggestions about how the bear could've got to the island. One of the versions says the animal could have walked on the ice in early spring or could have swum in the sea. "The distance from the island to the mainland is 50 km," he said. "We know cases, where a modern brown bear swam to the Wrangel Island (which is near the Chukchi Peninsula - TASS), and that island is much further from the mainland."
The other version says the bear could have walked to the island, as in the late Pleistocene (the so-called Ice Age), the Bolshoy Lyakhovsky Island, like the entire New Siberian Islands, was a part of Siberia's mainland. However, during the following millenniums a strait cut it off the continent. It is not clear when that happened. "The discovery of a brown bear, dated to the Middle Holocene, may be indirect evidence proving the island at those times was still a part of the mainland," the scientist said.
After the discovery, the finding was practically immediately placed in a glacier - a deep and cold cellar inside the permafrost, normally used to store ice and frozen food in summer. The carcass remained there until March, 2021. After all veterinary formalities were observed, it was shipped to Yakutsk for studies at the University's Mammoth Museum.
"The carcass has preserved very well, with no external damage. From a significant part of the body the fur has completely fallen out. The body length is approximately 155 cm, weight - 77.6 kg. The animal's lifetime weight, apparently, was more than 80 kg. Such body size and weight are typical for young bears in the second or third year. Presently we may say, the hair length and the undercoat indicate that the animal died either in early spring or in late autumn. We are sure that further autopsy will show when the animal died and how it had got to the island," the expert told TASS.
Studies
Before the autopsy, the scientists conducted a number of studies. "We have made a radiocarbon test to determine the age. The result shows the age is approximately 3,460 years - that is the Holocene period. Another study was to test the mitochondrial genome to compare it with other ancient and modern brown bears. The obtained results show this bear does not differ from the modern northeastern Eurasian population of brown bears," Lena Grigorieva, a leading researcher at the University's Molecular Paleontology Center told TASS.
The studies were carried out jointly with the Kurchatov Institute national research center under a grant from the Russian Science Foundation. The genome studies will continue, the researcher added.
Before the autopsy, scientists managed to conduct 3D scanning and 3D photometry of the carcass. The digital copies will be available on the Museum's electronic catalog and digital bank of 3D models of particularly valuable paleontological objects. In 2022, the Museum won the University's competition to develop the educational institution under the Priority 2030 program.