46,000-Year-Old ‘Permafrost Bird’ Discovered; Experts Say It’s Ancestor of Two Skylark Subspecies

Chinanet, February 24th report, according to Taiwan United News report, recently, explorers accidentally unearthed a 'Permafrost Bird' in Siberia's permafrost, identified as a Skylark bird from 46,000 years ago, looking like it had just died. Experts say this 'Permafrost Bird' is the ancestor of the two extant Skylark subspecies.

Image source: CNN report screenshot.

On February 21st, a paper in 'Communication Biology' states that the bird was buried in the permafrost near Belaya Gora village in Siberia's northeastern part, where it was discovered by ivory fossil hunters, and subsequently handed over to the Swedish Museum of Natural History.

Identified by experts such as Nicholas Duke and Love Dare using radiocarbon dating, this bird lived 46,000 years ago, with genetic analysis indicating a horned skylark. Dare stated that this bird may be the ancestor of the two extant skylark subspecies, one in northern Russia and the other in the Mongolian steppe, this discovery suggests that the climatic changes at the end of the last Ice Age led to the birth of new subspecies.

He also stated that the next phase of research will sequence the entire genome of the 'Permafrost Bird,' which will reveal more information about the relationship between the 'Permafrost Bird' and the current subspecies, and estimate the rate of evolution and change of skylarks.

Duke said these findings are 'priceless' because they allow researchers to retrieve DNA, and can retrieve RNA existing in all living cells, tracing back, opening new opportunities for studying the evolution of Ice Age animals and understanding how they reacted to climate changes in the past 500,000 to 1,000,000 years.

In addition, a 'Permafrost Dog' was also discovered at the same location, using carbon detection, experts confirmed that the specimen had been frozen for about 18,000 years, but so far DNA tests have been unable to confirm whether the canine is a dog or a wolf. Scientists can usually easily distinguish the differences, and the team hopes to conduct further tests to better understand when dogs were domesticated.

The report reveals the scene at the end of the Ice Age about 11,700 years ago, and gives people a glimpse into how the Mammoth Steppe was divided into three biomes (grassland, coniferous forest, and tundra). It was originally the homeland of extinct species such as the woolly mammoth and the saber-toothed cat.