Thursday, January 26, 2023

Prehistoric Steppe Bison

The more the frozen bits of Earth thaw, the more stuff from prehistoric times gets found in what used to be frozen.

Around 100,000 years ago, an ice age engulfed most of the northern hemisphere of the globe. Although fatal for many animals, other species continued to live, including the musk ox, the woolly mammoth, and the steppe bison. One of these steppe bison (scientifically called the 'bison priscus') has been found in Siberia's snow and ice.

This specimen is called the 'Yukagir bison', and is very well preserved, the most complete specimen known to date. It is so well preserved that scientists can observe its brain, heart, some blood vessels and all of its digestive system. Because there is a lack of fat around the abdomen, scientists assume the animal may have died of starvation.

Now extinct, the steppe bison was once found from the British Isles, through Europe, northern and central Asia, Beringia and central North America, from northwest Canada to Mexico. This species is ancestral to several later bison species, including the North American bison.

The steppe bison resembled the modern bison species, particularly the American wood bison, only it was taller and more massive. Standing over 6 ft 7 in tall (2 meters) at the withers (the highest point on its back, generally around its shoulders), it could reach a ton (900 kg) in weight. Its horns were each over half a meter long, and their upward-pointing tips were a meter apart.

I don't think I'd like to meet one of those in a dark alley somewhere.

 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/perfectly-preserved-9-000-year-old-bison-found-in-siberia/ar-AA16r3f4?ocid=mailsignout&pc=U591&cvid=0a0681b3bd014ac282863d8c1b7b73fb

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steppe_bison

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