X-ray scans have revealed that a grapefruit-sized lump is actually a 30,000-year-old mummified Ice Age ground squirrel which a gold miner stumbled upon this mysterious ball of fur in 2018 in the Klondike gold fields near Dawson City in Canada’s Yukon Territory, according to the Yukon Beringia Interpretive Center.
“It’s completely unrecognizable until you see these little hands and these claws, and you see a little tail, and then you see the ears,” said Yukon government paleontologist Grant Zazulla.
Grant took the ball to his vet, Jess Heath, for further verification. Heath took X-ray scans and revealed that the frozen ball of hair was actually a small squirrel curled up in the Arctic. It likely died in hibernation, perhaps during its first year.
Such discoveries are likely to become more common as global temperatures continue to rise due to emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane. This causes the ice to melt, revealing everything from mummified creatures to viruses and deposits of anthrax.
This squirrel was discovered within the traditional territory of the «Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in” people. It is the same species of arctic ground squirrel that still lives throughout the Yukon today. And the squirrel looks more like a groundhog than a squirrel.
These creatures make nests underground for their hibernation. Many of these nests have been preserved since the Ice Age.
