Gold diggers find mummified Ice Age squirrel

A miner in Canada was digging for gold – he found a fur ball. Researchers discovered: this is a squirrel that lived 30,000 years ago.

Frozen, the size of a grapefruit, made of fur, with an easily recognizable claw: In northern Canada, a miner made an unusual discovery that researchers have now decoded. Remarkable fur ball is 30,000 years old – actually a “perfectly preserved” mummified squirrel that lived in the Ice Age. This is what paleontologists discovered together with veterinarians. Canadian television broadcaster CBC first reported the news.

“It’s hard to tell until you see these little hands and claws, until you see a little tail, and then you see the ears,” said Grant Zasula, who has been researching the find for the Yukon Beringia Interpretation Center since 2018. transmitter. “We could see he was in great shape and he was curled up like he was sleeping,” said veterinarian Jess Heath, who took X-rays of the frozen fur ball.

This animal is the arctic ground squirrel, which still lives in the Yukon Territory today. The permafrost that has existed there since the Ice Age has repeatedly led to exciting ancient discoveries. Miners have already found a mummified wolf cub and a baby mammoth. Squirrels will appear soon.