NOS News•
In 2020, researchers thought they had another find of “world importance” with the remains of a prehistoric cave bear. But new research shows that the find is a lot less spectacular: the mummified bear appears to have died much shorter ago than initially thought and is also a different bear species.
The remains of the bear were found in the Russian Arctic by reindeer herders. The bear was a female about five feet tall and weighed about 170 pounds. It is estimated that the bear was 2 to 3 years old when she died.
The find was special because the carcass and tissue were still completely intact. All organs were still in place, and plants and birds were found in the bear’s stomach, some of which had feathers still in the belly.
Recently, the scientists performed a full necropsy – an autopsy on an animal – to get more information about the animal. It turned out that the carcass was ‘only’ about 3,400 years old and not at least 22,000 years old, as the researchers initially thought. It is also not an extinct cave bear, but a brown bear.
However, according to the scientists, it remains a “unique find”, because carcasses are rarely preserved so well and completely.