Yukon gold miners are unearthing mummified ancient creatures and truckloads of fossils from the Ice Age. Take a look.

Morgan McFall-JohnsenSep 12, 2024, 02:48 IST

This ball of brown fur and gnarled legs and claws turned out to be a mummified Arctic ground squirrel.Yukon Government<ul class="summary-list"><li><a target="_blank" class href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gold-miner-discovers-mummified-squirrel-mangled-fur-ball-yukon-2023-4">Gold miners in the Yukon</a> are discovering mummified ancient animals from the Ice Age.</li><li>Paleontologists often gather truckloads of fossils from the mines, but mummies are special and rare.</li></ul><a target="_blank" class href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gold-miners-woolly-mammoths-skeletons-2021-6">Miners are digging up more than just gold</a> in the Yukon, Canada's frigid northwestern territory bordering Alaska.They keep discovering ancient bones and mummified animals, from a <a target="_blank" class href="https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-ancient-intact-wolf-pup-mummy-yukon-permafrost-2020-12">perfectly frozen 57,000-year-old wolf pup</a> to a ball of fur and bones that used to be a squirrel.These creatures are remarkably well-preserved snapshots of the <a target="_blank" class href="https://www.businessinsider.com/300000-year-giant-hand-axes-ice-age-sediments-england-mystery-2023-7">Ice Age</a>, when glaciers covered northern North America.Because most of Earth's water was trapped in those glaciers, sea levels were so low that they exposed a vast grassy steppe stretching from the Yukon to Siberia, where megafauna like lions, <a target="_blank" class href="https://www.businessinsider.com/canada-near-perfect-baby-mammoth-found-in-yukons-klondike-gold-fields-2022-6">mammoths</a>, and scimitar cats roamed.Now paleontologists can study those animals' <a target="_blank" class href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mummified-frozen-wolf-may-have-ancient-pleistocene-viruses-2024-6">frozen and mummified</a> remains, revealing the Ice Age's secrets.

In the Yukon gold fields, miners are making major paleontology discoveries.

A mammoth tooth discovered in the Klondike gold fields in 2005.Government of Yukon

Gold miners dig through a frozen layer of soil called permafrost, where some animals have been preserved since the Ice Age.

Fossils unearthed in the Klondike gold fields lie outside a mine.Government of Yukon

As early as the 1890s, during the Klondike Gold Rush, miners were unearthing mammoth skulls and tusks.

Two men stand with the Mastodon tusks and ox skull they found buried along Hunker Creek in the Yukon Territory. Undated.Wolfe/Library of Congress/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images

But recent discoveries of mummified animals, like this caribou, are taking gold-mine paleontology to the next level.

A mummified caribou on the day it was discovered.Government of Yukon

It all started with this tiny dog-like animal. "We weren't quite sure what it was at the beginning," Zazula said.

The wolf pup as she was found in the Yukon permafrost.Government of Yukon

Indeed, genetic analysis revealed the little creature was a wolf pup from the Ice Age.

A close-up of the mummified wolf pup's head found in the Yukon, showing her teeth.Government of Yukon

Researchers think the 7-week-old pup was in her den when it collapsed and killed her.

A full-body view of the wolf pup mummy.Yukon Government

Some findings are at first even more mysterious than Zhùr, like this mangled ball of fur and claws.

This ball of brown fur and gnarled legs and claws turned out to be a mummified Arctic ground squirrel.Yukon Government

X-ray scanning revealed that the grapefruit-sized lump was a mummified, curled-up ground squirrel from 30,000 years ago.

X-ray scans revealed a well-preserved squirrel skeleton with its legs curled up.Yukon Government

Like Zhùr, the squirrel probably died in its underground burrow.

An illustration of the mummified ground squirrel curled up in its burrow during hibernation.Government of Yukon / Artist Julius Csotonyi

The Yukon's biggest finding yet is the preserved body of a baby mammoth.

An impeccably preserved baby mammoth, called Nun Cho Ga, is the crown jewel of Yukon paleontology.Government of Yukon

Tr'ondëk Hwëch'in leadership named the mammoth Nun Cho Ga, meaning "big animal baby" in their Hän language.

A model of a woolly mammoth (not Nun Cho Ga) during installation for the American Museum of Natural History in New York.Bebeto Matthews/AP Photo

The historic discovery of Nun Cho Ga finally put North America's permafrost findings on par with Russia's.

Professor Adrian Lister poses for photographs looking at Lyuba, a baby woolly mammoth discovered in Siberia.Matt Dunham/AP Photo

"We were constantly getting jealous of the cool stuff found in Siberia," Zazula said.

A carcass of an Ice Age cave bear found on Great Lyakhovsky Island in northern Russia.North-Eastern Federal University via AP

Beyond the occasional mummy discovery, Zazula and his colleagues gather about 5,000 to 7,000 fossils from the mines each year.

Fossils await sorting in the Klondike gold fields.Government of Yukon

"We drive back with truckloads of skeletons," Zazula said.

Researchers load up the sorted fossils in the back of a truck.Government of Yukon

The bones lead to fascinating discoveries, too, like piecing together the history of horses across the planet.

A horse skull from the Ice Age unearthed in gold-mine permafrost.Government of Yukon

Scientists can also look for DNA traces in the ancient permafrost itself.

A team samples permafrost in the Klondike gold fields.Government of Yukon

Because the permafrost is thawing across the Arctic, more and more fossils are emerging in new places.

Fossilized sheep skulls discovered in the gold fields.Government of Yukon

Paleontologists are keeping their fingers crossed for the next Nun Cho Ga — or even for ancient human mummies in the permafrost.

Two mountaineers with Ötzi, Europe's oldest natural human mummy, in the Otztal Alps between Austria and Italy.Paul HANNY/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images

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