Scientists Study Brown Bear Frozen for 3,500 Years

Scientists Study Brown Bear Frozen for 3,500 Years

A team of Russian scientists recently examined something extremely unusual: the frozen body of a brown bear that lived thousands of years ago.

The cold preserved the body almost perfectly¹ in the frozen lands of eastern Siberia for almost 3,500 years.

Maxim² Cheprasov is the laboratory chief at the Lazarev Mammoth³ Museum Laboratory at the North-Eastern Federal University in Yakutsk, eastern Siberia. "This find is absolutely unique: the complete body of an ancient brown bear," he said.

In 2020, reindeer⁴ herders found the female bear on an island in the Arctic Ocean. Part of the animal was sticking out of the frozen ground, or permafrost, on Bolshoy Lyakhovsky Island. The island is around 4,600 kilometers east of Moscow.

Because it was found just east of the Bolshoy Etherican River, it has been named the Etherican brown bear.

What did the bear eat?

Low temperatures helped preserve the bear's soft tissue for 3,460 years. It also let the scientists know about its final meals - bird feathers and plants. The bear is 1.55 meters tall and weighs nearly 78 kilograms.

"For the first time, a carcass with soft tissues has fallen into the hands of scientists, giving us the opportunity to study the internal organs and examine the brain," said Cheprasov.

The scientific team in Siberia looked at the bear's brain, skin and internal organs so they could study its cells, genes⁵, viruses and other organisms that lived inside it.

Is the bear like other bears today?

"Genetic⁶ analysis has shown that the bear does not differ in mitochondrial DNA⁷ from the modern bear from the north-east of Russia – Yakutia and Chukotka," Cheprasov said.

He said the bear was about three to four years old when it died from an injury to its back.

It is unclear how the bear came to be on the island, which is now divided from the mainland by a 50-kilometer-wide body of water. It may have crossed over ice, it might have swum over, or the island might still have been part of the mainland.

The Lyakhovsky Islands contain some of the richest treasures in the world for the field of paleontology. The area attracts both scientists and ivory traders hunting for the remains⁸ of woolly mammoths, a kind of hairy elephant that disappeared long ago.

Words in This Story

preserve – v. to keep undamaged

unique – adj. one of a kind; like no other

herder –n. a person who keeps and raises big groups of animals such as sheep, goats, cattle or reindeer

carcass – n. the body of a dead animal

mitochondrial DNA – n. DNA found in mitochondria, which contains some structural⁹ genes and is inherited only through the female line

paleontology – n. the science of the forms of life existing in former geologic periods, as represented by their fossils

1 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

2 maxim   

n.格言，箴言

参考例句：

• Please lay the maxim to your heart.请把此格言记在心里。
• "Waste not,want not" is her favourite maxim.“不浪费则不匮乏”是她喜爱的格言。

3 mammoth   

n.长毛象；adj.长毛象似的，巨大的

参考例句：

• You can only undertake mammoth changes if the finances are there.资金到位的情况下方可进行重大变革。
• Building the new railroad will be a mammoth job.修建那条新铁路将是一项巨大工程。

4 reindeer   

n.驯鹿

参考例句：

• The herd of reindeer was being trailed by a pack of wolves.那群驯鹿被一只狼群寻踪追赶上来。
• The life of the Reindeer men was a frontier life.驯鹿时代人的生活是一种边区生活。

5 genes   

n.基因( gene的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• You have good genes from your parents, so you should live a long time. 你从父母那儿获得优良的基因，所以能够活得很长。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Differences will help to reveal the functions of the genes. 它们间的差异将会帮助我们揭开基因多种功能。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 生物技术的世纪

6 genetic   

adj.遗传的，遗传学的

参考例句：

• It's very difficult to treat genetic diseases.遗传性疾病治疗起来很困难。
• Each daughter cell can receive a full complement of the genetic information.每个子细胞可以收到遗传信息的一个完全补偿物。

7 DNA   

(缩)deoxyribonucleic acid 脱氧核糖核酸

参考例句：

• DNA is stored in the nucleus of a cell.脱氧核糖核酸储存于细胞的细胞核里。
• Gene mutations are alterations in the DNA code.基因突变是指DNA密码的改变。

8 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

9 structural   

adj.构造的，组织的，建筑（用）的

参考例句：

• The storm caused no structural damage.风暴没有造成建筑结构方面的破坏。
• The North American continent is made up of three great structural entities.北美大陆是由三个构造单元组成的。