This is the first picture of an ancient foal dug out of the permafrost in the Batagai depression - also known as the ‘Mouth of Hell’ - in the Yakutia region of Siberia.
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| The Upper Palaeolithic foal held by Semyon Grigoryev, head of the Mammoth Museum [Credit: The Siberian Times] |
"The unique find was made in the permafrost of Batagai depression. The foal was completely preserved by permafrost. The extra value of the unique find is that we obtained samples of soil layers where it was preserved, which means we will be able to restore a picture of the foal’s environment."
The Ice Age foal lived up to 40,000 years ago, it is understood. It was buried at a level of around 30 metres in the tadpole-shaped depression, which is a ‘megaslump’ one kilometre long and around 800 metres wide.
"We will report the exact time when it lived after studying the soil samples,’ said the scientist. "The foal has completely preserved dark-brown hair, its tail and mane, as well as all internal organs. There are no visible wounds on its body. This is the first find in the world find of a pre-historic horse of such a young age and with such an amazing level of preservation."
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| The Batagai depression in Verkhoyansky district of Yakutia [Credit: The Siberian Times] |
The foal was found by an expedition to the Verkhoyansky district of Yakutia. The find was located by scientists from the North-Eastern Federal University, and Kindai University in Japan along with a crew from Fuji TV.
Nine years ago locals in Batagai village found a bison calf and part of an ancient horse’s body.
Locals in the remote Yakutia region see this spectacular crater as superstitious, and know it as the 'gateway to the underworld'. In fact, the depression was caused by the Soviets, who cleared forest here, but it is now being enlarged and shaped by climate change, according to local scientists.
Source: The Siberian Times [August 12, 2018]
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