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This story was update at 11 a.m. ET on Nov. 7 .
Hidden away under frozen ground for almost 10,000 yr , an extremely well - preserve bison mummy is finally quick to give up its secrets .
The almost perfectly preserved bison mummy was found on the shore of a lake in northern Siberia.
In 2011 , members of the Yukagir tribe in northern Siberia discovered the remains of a steppe bison ( Bison priscus ) , an extinct ascendent of themodern bisonthat still tramp the plains of North America and northerly Europe . The almost perfectly preserved bison was transported to the Yakutian Academy of Sciences in Siberia , where researchers made plans to perform a necropsy , an autopsy performed on animate being .
While other steppe bison mummies have been discovered over the years , none have been as well - preserve as the so - called Yukagir bison mummy , which was establish with its internal organs almost whole intact , according to Olga Potapova , the collections conservator and manager at the Mammoth Site of Hot Springs in South Dakota , who helped study the ancient mammal . [ Photos : 9,000 - Year - Old Bison Mummy Frozen in Time ]
" unremarkably , what you find with themummiesof megafauna in North America or Siberia is partial carcass . They ’re partly eaten or destroyed because they ’re lying in the permafrost for tens of thousands of years , " Potapova told Live Science . " But the mummy was preserved so well that it [ earned ] a phonograph record for the storey of its conservation . "
The investigator think the Yukagir bison died young , at about 4 days old , Potapova say . The lack of fat around the bison ’s stomach suggests the creature died of starvation .
But other than that missing layer of fat , the bison was very well - preserved , with its heart , blood vessels anddigestive systemfound relatively in tact , though some of the organs had shrunk significantly , the researchers said . The specimen was so well - continue that researcher were able to obtain tissue paper samples from each electric organ , Potapova said .
The bison mummy ’s brain was also very well - preserved , according to Albert Protopopov , gaffer of the mammoth fauna research department at the YakutianAcademy of Sciences . And this is the first fourth dimension that a steppe bison ’s mentality tissue has been found inviolate , Protopopov told Live Science via Potapova , who translated his statements .
The bison ’s head was removed from the animal ’s skull for further bailiwick , and the preliminary histology — or study of thebrain tissue paper — is still afoot , Protopopov add .
In addition to removing the bison ’s brain , the researchers also take out the rest of its intimate electronic organ , to examine the tissues . The destination of the enquiry is to pile up information about this ancient bison that can then be used to compare it to modern bison species , said Natalia Serduk , a senior researcher at the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow , who is also involved in the work .
To confirm that this glacial mammal really was a steppe bison , the researchers used mitochondrial deoxyribonucleic acid found within the animal ’s tissues to do a species recognition mental testing . They used carbon dating to set how long ago the animal lived , Serduk told Live Science via Potapova , who translated her statements .
" Anatomy , physiology , genetics — these give us very undecomposed information to fabricate the bison ’s home ground , behavior and style of life . If we get all this information , we ’ll be capable to trap down the real ground for the extinction of the specie , " Potapova said .
The determination were presented at the one-year meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology in Berlin and will be published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology .
