A horse born during the last Ice Age has been found preserved.

From UPI: “An international team of scientists have extracted liquid blood and urine from a 42,000-year-old foal recovered Siberian permafrost. Russian and South Korean researchers hope to use the preserved fluids to clone the ancient horse species. Last summer, scientists at the Mammoth Museum at Northeastern Federal University found the prehistoric foal frozen in the permafrost of Batagaika crater.”

Regarding the period during which the horse died, History.com states the following:

“An ice age is a period of colder global temperatures and recurring glacial expansion capable of lasting hundreds of millions of years. Thanks to the efforts of geologist Louis Agassiz and mathematician Milutin Milankovitch, scientists have determined that variations in the Earth’s orbit and shifting plate tectonics spur the waxing and waning of these periods. . . Scientists have recorded five significant ice ages throughout the Earth’s history: the Huronian (2.4-2.1 billion years ago), Cryogenian (850-635 million years ago), Andean-Saharan (460-430 mya), Karoo (360-260 mya) and Quaternary (2.6 mya-present). Approximately a dozen major glaciations have occurred over the past 1 million years, the largest of which peaked 650,000 years ago and lasted for 50,000 years. The most recent glaciation period, often known simply as the ‘Ice Age,’ reached peak conditions some 18,000 years ago before giving way to the interglacial Holocene epoch 11,700 years ago.”

Homo sapiens were around at the time that the horse died. Here is a statement from the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History:

“The species that you and all other living human beings on this planet belong to is Homo sapiens. During a time of dramatic climate change 300,000 years ago, Homo sapiens evolved in Africa. Like other early humans that were living at this time, they gathered and hunted food, and evolved behaviors that helped them respond to the challenges of survival in unstable environments.”

Featured Image: “Mamut-Herde der Eiszeit”
Photographer: Leo Wehrli (1870–1954)
Image licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.

David Robertson

The “Wanted” posters say the following about David: “Wanted: A refugee from planet Melmac masquerading as a human. Loves cats. If seen, contact the Alien Task Force.”

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