Goldminer finds perfectly preserved wolf in Canadian permafrost

Intact fossils are something like a goldmine for Paleontologists. But fossils have limitations so to speak. This is because soft tissues are seldom preserved in a fossil. But remains preserved in permafrost? Well, that is another thing.

One such perfectly preserved wolf has been found in Canada. The animal was covered by permafrost and is 57,000 years old! Due to its preservation in ice, the wolf's soft tissues and even fur is intact and this has opened doors for scientists to study animals in that era in great detail.

It is a female wolf puppy and has been found in Yukon, Canada. It has been named Zhur. Researchers have been quoted to call it "the oldest, most complete wolf"

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The wolf was found in Klondike goldfields, near Dawson City by a gold miner who was blasting a wall of frozen mud. 

X-ray technique analysis has revealed that the puppy was 6-7 weeks old. Researchers say that the puppy lived during times when ice sheets were receding. This means that there was a lot of freshwater around when it was alive.