Strange Finds Beneath Siberia's Permafrost

[Applause] more than 10% of our planet has a permanent ice sheet in Antarctica alone it covers an area of 14 million square km with an average thickness of more than 2 km and this is not just water it's like a real archive that has been collected for thousands of years holding in its depths the stories of the distant past but what will happen if even a small part of the ice melts What secrets can emerge from these depths what awaits us or who yes ice holds secrets that we did not even think of and today

you will learn about the most amazing finds in ice that have already turned upside down our understanding of the Earth's past 10 fascinating finds in permafrost don't forget to click like And subscribe for even more interesting [Music] [Music] content we're heading here here no this isn't where the Lord of the Rings was filmed though it does look similar this is the alai Republic in Russia at the heart of Siberia the natural beauty of this region is breathtaking no doubt but don't get too mesmerized we wouldn't recommend getting lost here the Republic is the size of

Portugal or the state of Maine in the USA but here there's only one single City the rest are settlements scattered amidst endless dense forests and mountains this is also a land of Legends and mystical Secrets One such secret was uncovered here in 1993 it would later be called one of the most significant archaeological discoveries of the 20th century it was also given a name or rather names the Siberian ice maiden or the princess of ukoke but that came later initially it was just the mummified body of an unknown ancient woman discovered in a kgon a

man-made burial mound on the ukoke plateau locals refer to this place as the second layer of Heaven as if it were a step above ordinary people with their ordinary lives archaeologists quickly realized that there was nothing ordinary here the woman was laid to rest in a coffin carved from a single large tree trunk 2.5 M long 8 ft long no she wasn't a giant it's just that her 1 M headdress required such an impressive sarcophagus and that's where the Amazing Discoveries just began this wasn't just a grave it was a whole sarcophagus meticulously constructed from

logs the effort ancient people put into sending this woman on her final journey is reminiscent of the tombs of Egyptian pharaohs the coffin was decorated with leather application days depicting deer figures next to the coffin stood two wooden table trays where ancient people had placed food and drink for the afterlife on the tables were horse meat and mutton in a wooden vessel with a carved handle and a stirer they found remnants of a dairy product possibly something like yogurt there was also a horn bowl with traces of an unknown drink the body itself lay on

its side with the legs slightly drawn up The Mummy was dressed in a white silk blouse a burgundy wool skirt felt stockings and a fur coat what was considered a massive headdress was also the deceased's hairstyle made from wool felt and her own hair her hands bore vibrant tattoos as though they had been Inked yesterday the permafrost perfectly preserved them along with her skin the tattooed Fantastical creatures were astonishing inly realistic and detailed one image showed a creature resembling a deer with the beak of a Griffin and flower-shaped antlers and now get ready to hear

something shocking six horses fully equipped with saddles and harnesses were buried alongside this woman it's believed they were sacrificed and prepared to accompany this mysterious woman so she wouldn't have to travel to the afterlife on foot here's what it might have looked like 2,500 years ago of course it's obvious that not everyone in the region received such an elaborate burial otherwise horses might not have survived to this day as a species the wealth of this burial strongly suggests that the woman was at least a priestess if not a ruler perhaps something akin to a princess

what we do know is that the ice Maiden was a representative of the Pizer culture a group of iron age Nomads who thrived in the Siberian steps between the 6th and 2 centuries BC the Pizer were pastoralists who bred horses sheep and cattle and hunted extensively they had connections with cultures from China Persia and other step peoples dendrochronologists analyzed samples from the logs of her tomb scientists also studied the organic matter from the horse's stomachs it was determined that the princess sa ukoke was buried in the spring likely in the 5th Century BC further research

revealed that she died relatively young between 25 and 28 years old but no more than 30 what happened to her this remained a mystery for a long time until researchers decided to examine the mummy using MRI the results showed a definitive diagnosis the princess suffered from an advanced stage of breast cancer the cancer had metastasized throughout her body even reaching her bones this had long been suspected as her weight was only about 45 kg at the time of death despite her decent height of 165 to 170 cm however something didn't quite add up her body

also had numerous fractures and dislocations she had clearly fallen from a great height we'll never know what exactly happened but it's certain that the princess of ukoke was living out her final days when she passed interestingly The Mummy was so remarkably preserved thanks to tomb Raiders who looted such burial mounds at some point a more recent burial mound was made on top of the princess's tomb this upper grave contained Warriors and all sorts of intriguing artifacts however scientists found clear signs of vandalism in this later upper tomb while pillaging the upper burial lutters unknowingly damaged

the wooden structure above the princess's chamber allowing meltwater to seep in the water filled the tomb the coffin and the burial chamber froze and never thought for over 2,400 years some prehistoric Laura Croft inadvertently turned the tomb into a frozen Time Capsule such a sad but fascinating story but there's far more to it scientists compared the DNA of the ice Maiden with that of modern alai inhabitants and found significant differences this led some archaeologists to hypothesize that the woman was of European descent forensic experts reconstructed her likely appearance and here's the version by Italian artist

Laura Livy let us know in the comments which version you trust more in any case as Natalia pmic the excavations lead archaeologist aptly said this mummy holds answers to questions we aren't even able to ask yet oh if only we could bring this princess back to life and ask her ourselves but then again considering how such stories tend to end in Hollywood movies perhaps it's best not to still there was was one case when scientists attempted to bring back someone who had been preserved in the permafrost for thousands of years let's find out what happened

we'll now head to yakusha in the north of Russia where something that shocked the scientific world was discovered in 2010 on the shores of the lap of sea near the village of yukar in Russia's yakusha region local mammoth ivory Hunters discovered something unusual in the permafrost at first glance it resembled a ledge protruding about 4 m above the beach nestled in a 5 m Cliff it didn't take long to realize what this ledge actually was a remarkably well-preserved body of a woolly mammoth calf now you might think that scientists from all over the world immediately

flocked to retrieve and study it but no the body lay right where it was found for another 2 years not because no one cared but because it's incredibly hard to extract such a find without damaging anything so the team prepared meticulously not really worrying about what would happen with the carcass after all if this thing had already been thousands of years in the permafrost it could wait there a little longer just imagine the body had Lin in the permafrost for 399,000 years like a time capsule as soon as the scientists began their work fascinating discoveries

emerged one after another clumps of the mammoth's fur were exceptionally well preserved retaining their original reddish tint soft tissues remained well soft showing virtually no signs of Decay the calf was only 6 to 7 years old at the time of death and it was a female the height at the shoulders was 1.6 M her body length from trunk to tail base was about 2 m and her tail was short just about 9 cm the mammoth calf likely weighed up to 550 kg she was named Yuka after the village of Yuka gear where she was discovered

her teeth and bones showed that she had been in Prime Health before meeting her tragic end scratch marks bite wounds and missing body parts told the rest of the story she had been attacked by cave Lions but fought desperately to survive the poor calf managed to escape into a muddy pit where she eventually died from her wounds scavengers fed on parts of her body but something scared them away then winter came and then the last glacial maximum enveloped her body in the permafrost and we can guess what many viewers might be thinking now because we've

been thinking it too if this young Mammoth is so well preserved could her DNA be extracted and used for cloning it would be wonderful to De extinct an entire biological species especially such a legendary one for many this sounds like something out of a childhood dream and yes some scientists even tried in March 2019 a team of Japanese researchers led by Kazu Yamagata a biologist from Kai University worked with yuka's tissues they extracted cellular structures resembling nuclei and stimulated them to perform basic biological processes in simpler terms there was something there that resembled life however

they failed to activate cell division thus it was impossible to spark real life perhaps that's for the best who knows if there would even be a place in our world for suddenly resurrected mammoths we mentioned that Yuka was haunted by cave Lions indeed they were skilled Predators they lived in groups much like modern lions and could hunt Giants such as mammoths and bison and they certainly wouldn't spare a little Mammoth calf ironically a couple of these ancient cats Cubs suffered the same fate as Yuka after all Karma works in mysterious ways in 2017 and 2018

incredible discoveries were made in yakusha perfectly preserved cave lion cubs and when we say perfectly we aren't really exaggerating they were given simple and memorable names Boris and Sparta Boris was discovered first in 2017 Sparta was found a year later in 2018 just 15 M away from Boris these were just babies only a few weeks old at first glance they might seem like siblings or at least contemporaries but that's not the case boris's remains were about 43,000 years old while Sparta was about 15,000 years younger about 28,000 years old their fur was so well preserved

that it looked as though these Cubs had been frolicking around just yesterday Sparta even still had her whiskers the Cub skin teeth Claws and even internal organs were remarkably intact Sparta's lungs liver and part of her stomach were especially well preserved the stomach contents revealed that the Cubs died in the absence of any food sources genetic material extracted from their soft tissues confirmed they belonged to the species panthera SP these lions were closely related to Modern Lions but better adapted to glacial conditions they had thicker fur shorter tails and smaller ears they were also larger

than today's Lions interestingly both Boris and Sparta died under similar conditions it's believed that both Cubs were caught in a landslide or trapped in a natural inclosure possibly a cave where their parents had made dance and this happened in the exact same spot only 15,000 years apart scientists continue to study Boris and Sparta they hope to sequence the full Genome of Sparta the most well-preserved cup then cloning would really be just one step away now we'll move on to the next amazing Discovery But first you need to brace yourselves psychologically no there's no horror involved

but what you're about to learn in the next couple ofes minutes is something you should never under any circumstances try to replicate it's incredibly dangerous while it's unlikely you'll ever have such an option we still feel the need to warn you now let's get to it from Russia we now travel to the United States not too far though to Alaska near the city of Fairbanks in 1979 Gold Miner stumbled upon one of the strangest and most astonishing finds the Frozen carcass of a step bison that had stayed in the permafrost for approximately 36,000 years it

was named Blue babe an ironic nod to the giant Blue Ox from The Legend of Paul bunan but the name wasn't entirely random the Frozen bison actually had a bluish tint this was due to a chemical reaction between phosphates and iron in the soil that resulted in the formation of mineral called vivianite it was the substance that coated the animal's body with a thin blue layer the carcass was so well preserved that at first glance it looked like an animal that had only died recently the hide meat and even some internal organs were remarkably intact

scientists believe that this bison fell victim to a cave liion yes our old acquaintances seem to have something to do with it only these were adults of a slightly different kind panthera Leo atrox the bison's hide bore claw and bite marks it appears the lion tore the bison's throat but was scared off by something leaving the carcass behind the body was then quickly buried under sediment and frozen solid the study of blue babe provided unique insights into the life and death of ancient animals during the last ice age the Frozen tissues allowed scientists to analy

Anze the bison's diet reconstruct its ecosystem and gather data on climate temperatures and vegetation although interesting this isn't such a big deal the most famous part of blue bab's story relates not to paleontology but to cooking Yes you heard that right one of the researchers paleontologist Dale Guthrie from the University of Alaska Fairbanks had an idea to try the meat of this ancient animal we'd like to believe that he was joking at first Guthrie was quite the Joker but his colleagues turned out to be even more daring and said why not here's a bit of

backstory and some details gold miners stumbled upon the Bison while using a water jet to thaw frozen ground realizing that the carcass would quickly defrost they hurried to report the find to the nearby University of Alaska in Fairbanks fearing rapid decomposition Dale Guthrie then a professor and researcher at the University decided to excavate blue babe immediately however this was no easy task in the permafrost the scientist cut off the parts of the carcass that were already exposed refroze them and waited for the head and neck to thaw when the carcass was finally fully excavated researchers

were amazed to find that the muscle tissue had retained a texture resembling beef jerky in short they decided not to cook a steak from the neck but figured a vegetable stew with spices why not the result nobody died Guthrie later admitted it tasted a little bit like what I would have expected with a little bit of Ring of mud he said but it wasn't that bad not so bad that we couldn't each have a bowl once again don't try to replicate something like this not that you're likely to find a frozen bison carcass in your

backyard and chances are you don't live near permafrost but you get the idea now let's take a deep breath after this questionable experience and move on once again we're heading back to Russia and again to yakusha and once again our unwitting assistants are mammoth ivory hunters in 2020 they made a discovery in yakusa that was another shocker for the scientific community and where is this fearsome predator here it is and yes that tiny marker labeled 1 cm is the scale indicator okay here's a 10-cent coin for comparison no we're not trolling you what you see

is an actual saber-toothed cat the very one you've seen a hundred times in illustrations but here it's a kitten just a few weeks old and it died much like Boris and Sparta however this is a completely different story and a much more fearsome Predator had it been adult the discovery is estimated to be about 35,000 years old and is possibly the first specimen of this legendary species with such a preservation level this tiny Predator even retained its whiskers and Claws its fur is in pristine condition dense and thick as if specially designed for surviving in

glacial Siberia this kitten has filled a significant Gap in our understanding of the range and living conditions of ancient Predators but the biggest surprise came from DNA analysis instead of one of the more familiar species this was identified as a representative of homo theum ladin a unique lineage of saber-toothed cats adapted to the harsh Northern climates here's what they would have looked like as adults standing over 1 M at the shoulder with a length of up to 2 m excl including the tail and weighing up to 200 kg these Predators were not the most saber-toothed

among their kind but they looked quite intimidating and had a fitting temperament the anatomy of the Cub gave insight into how their canines those very Sabers the cat used for hunting developed homotherium had relatively short but thick saber likee serrated [ __ ] which set them apart from the long slender teeth of smilodons in the discovered Cub the teeth were just beginning to grow allowing scientists to study this process in Dynamics researchers plan to continue studying The Mummy using the latest Technologies it's possible they will attempt to sequence its entire genome and then who knows

to see the next remarkable find we'll fly where nowhere we'll stay in yakusha it seems that this Russian region is a real treasure trove of permafrost discoveries in 2018 a team of Russian and Japanese scientists uncovered something even more astonishing than the previous entries on our list this was the carcass of an ancient step horse later named the Lena horse after the nearby Lena River the find was estimated to be about 42,000 years old the fo's body was discovered in the Baga crater a gigantic natural pit called the gateway to the underworld by the locals

the preservation of the horse was near perfect fur Mane Hooves internal organs and most incredibly liquid blood and urine were extracted from the mummified body this is an incredibly rare and fortunate find the fo was determined to have been only 2 months old at the time of death it's seems there are suspiciously many juveniles among these finds the fo's body length was about 1 M comparable to Modern horses of the same age its coat was light brown with whitish accents on the man and legs even fine details such as the ears eyelashes and nostrils were

remarkably well preserved analysis suggests the F drowned in a muddy pit which quickly froze preserving its body in the permafrost this not only prevented decomposition but also kept its soft tissues in an astonishing state for its age most importantly thanks to the liquid blood and other tissues scientists were able to extract many intact fragments of the horse's DNA in fact there may be enough fragments to assemble the original full genome from this Lego set this means the possibility of cloning the Lena horse is no longer a far-fetched dream but a realistic goal in collaboration with

South Korea's soam biotech laboratory Russian scientists have announced that they are considering the cloning of the Lenor if successful this could become the first successful D Extinction project our next Discovery is one of the oldest and most remarkably well-preserved specimens of the Ice Age meet zoher an ancient wolf pup found in Canada in 2016 yep another juvenile zuher was discovered in the Klondike region the locals named him zuher which means wolf in their language zor's body is almost perfectly preserved this pup lived only 6 to 8 weeks before tragedy struck trapping him in an icy

grave that preserved him for 57,000 years his eyes nose fur and Claws appear as though he fell into an eternal sleep just yesterday but that's far from the only reason why this find is so significant zoher provided scientists with a unique opportunity to learn more about the lives of ancient wolves and their environmental conditions during the Ice Age his well preserved fur and teeth allowed researchers to analyze his diet surprisingly it was found that zoher primarily ate fish this was quite an unexpected Discovery no it's not as strange as if he had been herbivorous but

still unusual the condition of its tissu suggests it had a quick death most likely the animal died due to a riverbank collapse or Landslide which buried him under layers of sediment that quickly froze a classic permafrost preservation Story the ancient spe species zoher belonged to was likely an ancestor of modern gry wolves they hunted in packs but could also lead solitary lives DNA analysis confirmed that zohur belonged to an ancient wolf lineage that no longer exists but contributed to the genetic material of modern wolf populations zor's Discovery has opened new avenues for research his genetic

material can be used to study the evolution of ancient PR s and may even contribute to ambitious projects like cloning for now zohur remains one of the best preserved examples of ancient Ice Age life we finally arrived at something you may not have expected until now we've discussed attempts to revive some animals Frozen for thousands of years although only through cloning but what about the actual Resurrection from the Frozen in 2018 Russian scientists in collaboration with researchers from Princeton University made a startling Discovery they studied two samples of ancient nematodes microscopic roundworms typically less than

a millimet in size one sample was extracted from the icy layers of the kma river while the other was found near the alazia river the samples were estimated to be 42,000 and 30,000 years old respectively and here the team of scientists discovered something shocking both nematodes after being placed in a nutrient-rich medium began to show signs of Life yes this was a true scientific sensation these worms frozen solid for tens of thousands of years came back to life after thawing this marked the first documented case of successfully Reviving a multicellular organism that had been in

a frozen state for such an extended period the discovery demonstrated that life could persist much longer under extreme conditions than previously thought moreover these resilient little worms opened the door to studying the limits of biological survival which holds critical implications for astrobiology the science of life in space however this story raised serious questions and concerns what if these nematodes introduced ancient microorganisms or viruses into our modern world potentially threatening ecosystems this is where things take a more unsettling [Music] turn in 2014 French scientists discovered an ancient virus buried in Siberian permafrost they named it pithovirus

sibericum and it was dated to be around 30,000 years old what made this virus particularly remarkable was its size it's one of the largest viruses ever identified so large it can be seen under a microscope without complex techniques measuring about 1.5 microm it's even larger than many bacteria for comparison the diameter of a human hair is about 70 microm the pytho virus turned out to be really unique first unlike most viruses which have compact genomes the pithovirus contains many unnecessary or non-coding DNA fragments or junk DNA if you will however dismissing these as irrelevant might

be misleading as it downplays potential threats second it turns out pithovirus specializes in infecting amibas using special instruments scientists reactivated the pytho virus we know it sounds ominous no matter what scientists say about laboratory safety when placed in a nutrient medium with amias the virus successfully infected and replicated within them this experiment demonstrated that ancient pathogens could remain infectious even after tens of thousands of years while human cells are of no interest to the pthirus its Resurrection is unsettling the mere fact that this virus could be revived D after tens of thousands of years has

made scientists Ponder what else might be hidden in the permafrost the pithovirus served as a chilling reminder that permafrost can act not only as a preserver of animals but as a time capsule for ancient pathogens in fact the outbreaks of Anthrax in the northern regions of Russia are vivid examples of that an unusually hot summer of 2016 melted permafrost exposing the burial sites of livestock that had died from Anthrax decades earlier the anthrax remained active causing an outbreak that infected dozens of people and killed thousands of reindeer although pytho virus turned out to be harmless

its Revival reminds us of the potential dangers lurking in permafrost if viruses that once infected animals or even humans tens of thousands of years ago were to thaw and re emerge they might pose significant risks to Modern immune systems unprepared for such ancient adversaries this scenario is akin to encountering an ancient enemy we once had weapons for but have since forgotten how to make them and it's almost certain that the pithovirus isn't the only enemy hiding beneath the ice in 2021 an inter National research team drilled ice cores on the Tibetan plateau and made a

remarkable Discovery 33 distinct viruses 28 of which were previously unknown to science the team used sterile equipment and extremely cautious methods to avoid contaminating the samples after all when searching for viruses that are 15,000 years old it's crucial to ensure they are truly ancient and not modern the ice samples were collected from two locations on the gulia glacier at an altitude of over 6,700 M here the ice acts as a time capsule preserving microorganisms and viruses in Pre condition what's Most Fascinating about these viruses is their extraordinary adaptation to extreme conditions low temperatures high levels

of ultraviolet radiation and a lack of nutrients didn't hinder their survival scientists believe these viruses infected ancient bacteria living on glaciers and were part of that unique ecosystem this discovery adds to Growing concerns about the melting of glaciers while these particular viruses pose no threat to humans who can guarantee that future discoveries will be equally harmless no no no no