Russian scientists have performed an autopsy on the corpse of a female brown bear that remained almost perfectly preserved in the frozen desert of eastern Siberia for 3,500 years after it was discovered by reindeer herders on an Arctic island, reports 20 Minutos, citing Rador.

According to Reuters, Maksym Sheprasov, head of the laboratory of the Lazarevsky Museum of Mammoths at Northeastern Federal University in Yakutsk, eastern Siberia, said: “This find is absolutely unique: a complete carcass of an ancient brown bear.”

The bear was found by reindeer herders in 2020 when it emerged from the permafrost on the island of Velikiy Lyakhovsky, part of the Novosibirsk archipelago, about 4,600 km east of Moscow. Because it was found east of the Great Etherican River, it was called the Etherican Brown Bear.

Extreme temperatures helped preserve the bear’s soft tissues for 3,460 years, as well as the remains of its last food: bird feathers and plants. The height of the bear was 1.55 meters, and the weight was almost 78 kg.

“For the first time, a carcass with soft tissues came into the hands of scientists, which gave us the opportunity to study the internal organs and study the brain,” said Sheprasov.

A scientific group from Siberia removed the skin from the bear, which allowed scientists to examine its brain, internal organs and conduct a number of cellular, microbiological, virological and genetic studies.

The animal’s pink tissue and yellow fat were clearly visible when the team dissected the animal. They also cut open his skull, using a vacuum to suck the dust out of the skull bone before extracting his brain.

“Genetic analysis showed that the female bear does not differ in mitochondrial DNA from the modern bear in northeastern Russia: Yakutia and Shukotka,” Sheprasov said. The scientist said the bear was probably 2-3 years old and died from a spinal cord injury.

However, it is unclear how the bear ended up on the island, which is now separated from the mainland by a 50-kilometer strait. Perhaps they walked on the ice, swam, or the island was still part of the mainland.

The Lyakhov Islands contain some of the richest paleontological treasures in the world and attract both scientists and ivory traders looking for woolly mammoths.