After years and years of hunting, some only of the fossil hunters find something related to the past. Just like that, recently, in 2018, a frozen bird was discovered by a few fossil hunters in the ground of the Belaya Gora area of north-eastern Siberia. It was a 46,000 years old lark, dug in the permafrost land of Siberia.
The confirmed revelation of the bird’s age and it’s species was done after the collective research and study of the scientists from Stockholm University’s Centre for Paleo-genetics and the Swedish Museum of Natural History.
More revelations about the bird:
- The experts confirmed that the female horned lark belonged to ancient times, i.e., about 46,000 years
- The study of the scientists also suggested that some of its sub-species still exist in the present time.
- After the genetic analysis of the bird, it was clear that it belonged to the joint population of the ancestors of two subspecies of the horned larks that are still present. And one of them is of Siberia and the other one in of the steppe in Mongolia.
Nicolas Dussex, a researcher at the Dept. of Zoology at Stockholm University, stated that all the revelations helped in understanding the diversity of the sub-species.
What conditions helped the bird’s dead specimen to make it so far?
The tiny, fragile specimen was intact mostly because of the mud that gradually deposited on its corpse. Also, the permafrost condition of the ground made the bird’s corpse to stay as it is for over 46,000 years. Another condition that caused the birds to stay at a place (which revealed its death time) was the stability of the ground. Love Dalen, ecology, and evolution investigator explained all these conclusions about the bird.
More discoveries
The scientists also found out that the horned lark belonged to the Pleistocene era. Another revelation came forward, stating that the bird was not the only frozen animal extracted from that same Siberian site. Some of the remains of woolly rhinos, mammoths, a 50,000-year-old cave lion cub, and an 18,000 years old unknown frozen mammal were evacuated from around the same place as that of the horned lark.
In 2017, an 18,000 years old canine was discovered from the same Siberian site. Dussex and Dalen started research to unveil the animal behind this discovery. According to their study, it was unsure of predicting whether the mammal was a dog or a wolf. They concluded that even after its perfectly preserved state, it is difficult to conclude whether the mammal was a wolf or a dog.
However, finding the prehistoric lark was the most priceless moment for the paleogenetic field, exclaimed, Dussex!
Winding up
The fossil hunters are continuing to work and uncover all the frozen history of the Siberian village. They hope to get a clear picture of the drastic effects of climate change that occurred over the past few centuries.