'Prehistoric' mummified bear discovered in Siberian permafrost isn't what we thought

A close-up of the mummified bear's head. (Image credit: Press service of the North-Eastern Federal University)

A perfectly preserved, mummified bear found entombed in the Siberian permafrost in 2020 isn't what scientists thought it was, a new analysis reveals. It turns out that the eerily intact carcass is much younger than first assumed and belongs to an entirely different species. 

Reindeer herders unearthed the remains, which include the bear's intact skin, fur, teeth, nose, claws, body fat and internal organs, on Bolshoy Lyakhovsky Island, a remote Russian island located in the East Siberian Sea. Researchers named it the Etherican bear, after the nearby Bolshoy Etherican River. 

When the Etherican bear was first uncovered, researchers at the Lazarev Mammoth Museum Laboratory at North-Eastern Federal University (NEFU) in Yakutsk, who have led the analysis of the remains, thought that the mummy was an extinct cave bear (Ursus spelaeus). Fossils of this long-lost species suggest that the enormous ancient bears, which are closely related to brown bears (Ursus arctos) and polar bears (Ursus maritimus), grew to around 11.5 feet (3.5 meters) tall and weighed a whopping 3,300 pounds (1,500 kilograms). U. spelaeus went extinct around 22,000 years ago, toward the end of the Last Glacial Maximum, the coldest part of the last ice age, so the researchers believed that the mummy was at least this old.

However, subsequent analysis revealed that their assumptions about the Etherican bear were way off: In reality, the beast was a brown bear that dated to around 3,460 years ago, the NEFU team said in a statement (opens in new tab) in December 2022. 

Related: 10 stunning fossils from 2022 that didn't come from dinosaurs 

window.sliceComponents = window.sliceComponents || {}; externalsScriptLoaded.then(() => { window.reliableDOMContentLoaded.then(() => { var componentContainer = document.querySelector("#slice-container-imageGallery-4"); if(componentContainer) { var data = {"galleryData":[{"title":"","description":[],"image":{"id":"nFaZwunQ7V73EK2u5YHq83","name":"Untitled 3.jpg","caption":"Researchers discuss heir findings during the latest necropsy.","credit":{"text":"(Image credit: {subject})","subject":"Press service of the North-Eastern Federal University"},"src":"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/nFaZwunQ7V73EK2u5YHq83.jpg","alt":"Researchers discuss heir findings.","width":1600,"height":900,"srcSetSizes":[320,480,650,970,1024,1200],"sizes":{"default":"calc(100vw - 40px)","1000px":"970px"},"fullscreen":false,"lazyLoading":true,"addSEOMetaData":false,"eager":false,"removeNativeWidthRestriction":false}},{"title":"","description":[],"image":{"id":"SWahCaPhpsW8ECYEjgDTT3","name":"Untitled(3).jpg","caption":"Researchers surround the bear.","credit":{"text":"(Image credit: {subject})","subject":"Press service of the North-Eastern Federal University"},"src":"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/SWahCaPhpsW8ECYEjgDTT3.jpg","alt":"Researchers surround the bear.","width":1600,"height":900,"srcSetSizes":[320,480,650,970,1024,1200],"sizes":{"default":"calc(100vw - 40px)","1000px":"970px"},"fullscreen":false,"lazyLoading":true,"addSEOMetaData":false,"eager":false,"removeNativeWidthRestriction":false}},{"title":"","description":[],"image":{"id":"B6usPjncy6fN9r2J9hb4WL","name":"Untitled(1).jpg","caption":"The bear's corpse from behind.","credit":{"text":"(Image credit: {subject})","subject":"Press service of the North-Eastern Federal University"},"src":"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/B6usPjncy6fN9r2J9hb4WL.jpg","alt":"The bear's corpse from behind.","width":1600,"height":900,"srcSetSizes":[320,480,650,970,1024,1200],"sizes":{"default":"calc(100vw - 40px)","1000px":"970px"},"fullscreen":false,"lazyLoading":true,"addSEOMetaData":false,"eager":false,"removeNativeWidthRestriction":false}},{"title":"","description":[],"image":{"id":"MDmjXKsN8vwQimypNTEP4c","name":"Untitled.jpg","caption":"A researcher removes the bear's brain.","credit":{"text":"(Image credit: {subject})","subject":"Press service of the North-Eastern Federal University"},"src":"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/MDmjXKsN8vwQimypNTEP4c.jpg","alt":"A researcher removes the bear's brain.","width":1600,"height":900,"srcSetSizes":[320,480,650,970,1024,1200],"sizes":{"default":"calc(100vw - 40px)","1000px":"970px"},"fullscreen":false,"lazyLoading":true,"addSEOMetaData":false,"eager":false,"removeNativeWidthRestriction":false}}],"progressText":"Image {currentSlide} of {totalSlides}","viewOriginalText":"View Original"}; var triggerHydrate = function() { window.sliceComponents.imageGallery.hydrate(data, componentContainer); } var triggerScriptLoadThenHydrate = function() { if (window.sliceComponents.imageGallery === undefined) { var script = document.createElement('script'); script.src = 'https://slice.vanilla.futurecdn.net/10-9-3/imageGallery.js'; script.async = true; script.id = 'vanilla-slice-imageGallery-4-component-script'; script.onload = () => { window.sliceComponents.imageGallery = imageGallery; triggerHydrate(); }; document.head.append(script); } else { triggerHydrate(); } } if (window.lazyObserveElement) { window.lazyObserveElement(componentContainer, triggerScriptLoadThenHydrate, 1500); } else { console.log('Could not lazy load slice JS for imageGallery-4') } } }).catch(err => console.log('Hydration Script has failed for imageGallery-4 Slice', err)); }).catch(err => console.log('Externals script failed to load', err)); Image 1 of 4Researchers discuss heir findings during the latest necropsy. (Image credit: Press service of the North-Eastern Federal University)Researchers surround the bear. (Image credit: Press service of the North-Eastern Federal University)The bear's corpse from behind. (Image credit: Press service of the North-Eastern Federal University)A researcher removes the bear's brain. (Image credit: Press service of the North-Eastern Federal University)

The NEFU team recently conducted a full necropsy, or animal autopsy, on the Etherican bear, which has revealed even more about the mysterious mummy, Reuters (opens in new tab) reported.

The bear was a female that was 5.2 feet (1.6 m) tall and weighed around 172 pounds (78 kg), suggesting it was likely around 2 to 3 years old when it died. It is unclear how the bear perished, but its mummy showed signs of significant spinal injuries that likely contributed to its demise.

The Etherican bear was so well preserved that its stomach contents were still partly intact, which revealed that the bear had been dining on a mix of unidentified plants and birds, some of whose feathers were still inside the bear's belly. This fits with what we know about living brown bears that are omnivores, meaning they have a mixed diet of plants and animals.

Researchers sew the bear's skull back up after removing the brain. (Image credit: Press service of the North-Eastern Federal University)

The researchers also removed the bear's brain after cutting through its skull, which they hope to study in the future. 

RELATED STORIES

—Mummified mystery pup that died 18,000 years ago was a wolf

—30,000 year-old mummified baby mammoth found by Canadian gold miner

—Ancient 'bear dog' found in France named after child-murdering cyclops 

One of the biggest remaining mysteries about the Etherican bear is how it ended up on Bolshoy Lyakhovsky Island. 

The island is currently separated from the mainland by around 31 miles (50 kilometers) of water, so the most likely explanation is that brown bears moved to the island when it was still connected by sea ice during the Last Glacial Maximum, according to Reuters. But if this was the case, then researchers would have expected to find many more brown bear remains on the island, which is a hotspot for paleontological treasures, including mammoth remains.