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Russian Scientists Conduct Autopsy on 44,000-year-old Permafrost Wolf Carcass

Scientists perform an autopsy of an ancient wolf, frozen in permafrost for more than 44,000 years and found by locals in Yakutia, at the laboratory of the North-Eastern Federal University in Yakutsk, Russia June 18, 2024. Michil Yakovlev/North-Eastern Federal University/Handout via REUTERS
Scientists perform an autopsy of an ancient wolf, frozen in permafrost for more than 44,000 years and found by locals in Yakutia, at the laboratory of the North-Eastern Federal University in Yakutsk, Russia June 18, 2024. Michil Yakovlev/North-Eastern Federal University/Handout via REUTERS
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Russian Scientists Conduct Autopsy on 44,000-year-old Permafrost Wolf Carcass

Scientists perform an autopsy of an ancient wolf, frozen in permafrost for more than 44,000 years and found by locals in Yakutia, at the laboratory of the North-Eastern Federal University in Yakutsk, Russia June 18, 2024. Michil Yakovlev/North-Eastern Federal University/Handout via REUTERS
Scientists perform an autopsy of an ancient wolf, frozen in permafrost for more than 44,000 years and found by locals in Yakutia, at the laboratory of the North-Eastern Federal University in Yakutsk, Russia June 18, 2024. Michil Yakovlev/North-Eastern Federal University/Handout via REUTERS

In Russia's far northeastern Yakutia region, local scientists are performing an autopsy on a wolf frozen in permafrost for around 44,000 years, a find they said was the first of its kind.
Found by chance by locals in Yakutia's Abyyskiy district in 2021, the wolf's body is only now being properly examined by scientists, Reuters reported Friday.
"This is the world's first discovery of a late Pleistocene predator," said Albert Protopopov, head of the department for the study of mammoth fauna at the Yakutia Academy of Sciences.
"Its age is about 44,000 years, and there have never been such finds before," he said.
Sandwiched between the Arctic Ocean and in Russia's Arctic far east, Yakutia is a vast region of swamps and forests around the size of Texas, around 95% of which is covered in permafrost.
Winter temperatures in the region have been known to drop to as low as minus 64 degrees Celsius (-83.2°F)
"Usually, it's the herbivorous animals that die, get stuck in swamps, freeze and reach us as a whole. This is the first time when a large carnivore has been found," said Protopopov.
While it's not unusual to find millennia-old animal carcasses buried deep in permafrost, which is slowly melting due to climate change, the wolf is special, Protopopov said.
"It was a very active predator, one of the larger ones. Slightly smaller than cave lions and bears, but a very active, mobile predator, and it was also a scavenger," he added.
For Artyom Nedoluzhko, development director of the paleogenetics laboratory at the European University of St. Petersburg, the wolf's remains offer a rare insight into the Yakutia of 44,000 years ago.
"The main goal is to understand what this wolf fed on, who it was, and how it relates to those ancient wolves that inhabited the northeastern part of Eurasia," he said.

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Rain, Snow Offer Hope in Japan’s Worst Wildfire in 50 Years 

Members of the media look out across the bay at smoke rising from a mountain in the rain as firefighters continue to battle a wildfire near the city of Ofunato on March 5, 2025. (AFP)
Members of the media look out across the bay at smoke rising from a mountain in the rain as firefighters continue to battle a wildfire near the city of Ofunato on March 5, 2025. (AFP)
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Rain, Snow Offer Hope in Japan’s Worst Wildfire in 50 Years 

Members of the media look out across the bay at smoke rising from a mountain in the rain as firefighters continue to battle a wildfire near the city of Ofunato on March 5, 2025. (AFP)
Members of the media look out across the bay at smoke rising from a mountain in the rain as firefighters continue to battle a wildfire near the city of Ofunato on March 5, 2025. (AFP)

Japan battled its worst wildfire in half a century on Wednesday in a region hit by record-low rainfall, as wet weather gave hope for some relief.

The blaze around the northern city of Ofunato in the Iwate region has raged for more than a week, killing one person and forcing nearly 4,000 residents to evacuate their homes.

It has engulfed about 2,900 hectares (7,170 acres) -- around half the size of Manhattan -- making it the largest wildfire since at least 1975, when 2,700 hectares burnt in Hokkaido.

"The fire was like nothing I've seen before. It was towering and spreading fast," said Mitsuo Otsubo, 85, who fled his home to stay with a relative.

"It didn't rain or snow at all this year... Thank goodness it rained today though. I can only hope it will help contain the situation," the seaweed and scallop farmer told AFP.

An 86-year-old woman, who declined to be identified, said she had seen "a huge amount of smoke rising up and then the fire".

"The wind was really strong and I was so stunned that my pulse became erratic," she said.

Columns of white smoke billowed from a mountain through the rain and snow on Wednesday, AFP reporters saw. More wet weather was forecast through Thursday.

"Firefighters have been working on the ground through the night," a city official told AFP on Wednesday.

"We are hoping that snow, which started to fall this morning, will help," he said.

- Hot soak -

At least 84 buildings are believed to have been damaged, although details are still being assessed, according to the fire agency.

Almost 4,000 people had complied with orders to evacuate by late Tuesday.

The owner of an "onsen" hot spring inn voluntarily opened his facility for free to evacuees.

"Not being able to bathe yourself on top of dealing with the chaos of life in a shelter definitely wears you down," 60-year-old Toyoshige Shida, of Ofunato Onsen, told AFP.

He said he built the inn after seeing how people suffered in the wake of a huge earthquake and tsunami in 2011 that killed at least 340 people in Ofunato alone.

- Dry weather -

Japan endured its hottest summer on record last year as climate change pushes up temperatures worldwide.

The number of wildfires in the country has declined since its 1970s peak.

However, there were about 1,300 in 2023, concentrated in the period from February to April when the air dries out and winds pick up.

Ofunato received just 2.5 millimeters (0.1 inches) of rainfall in February -- breaking the previous record low for the month of 4.4 millimeters in 1967 and well below the average of 41 millimeters.

Greg Mullins, formerly fire and rescue commissioner for the Australian state of New South Wales, told AFP that the Japan fire and the recent Los Angeles wildfires were "highly unusual" because they were in winter.

"In both cases the fires were preceded by hot summers, which increased evaporation and drying of vegetation, followed by large rainfall deficits that parched the landscape," he said.

"This is a common by-product of climate change that is being seen worldwide," said Mullins, a founder of the Emergency Leaders for Climate Action group.

"As the planet warms further, we can expect to see fires in places where they have never before been a problem."

- 'High hopes' -

Around 2,000 firefighters, most deployed from other parts of Japan, including Tokyo, have been working from the air and on the ground.

"The fact that teams of firefighters are being reinforced every day, and that the fire has been going on for a week, shows the extent of the dry weather and the difficulties we are facing," Ofunato Mayor Kiyoshi Fuchigami told reporters.

The topography of the mountainous coastal area, with steep slopes and narrow and winding roads, was hampering the fire-fighting operation.

Japanese baseball prodigy Roki Sasaki, who recently joined the Los Angeles Dodgers, has offered a 10-million-yen ($67,000) donation and 500 sets of bedding.

Sasaki attended high school in Ofunato after losing his father and grandparents in the 2011 tsunami.