In Siberian Permafrost, A Perfectly Preserved 32,000-Year-Old Wolf Head Was Discovered

Stanton claimed that steppe wolves were "probably slightly larger and more robust than modern wolves." The animals, which had a powerful, broad jaw designed for hunting giant herbivores like woolly mammoths and rhinos, vanished between 20,000 and 30,000 years ago, or approximately the same period that modern wolves first appeared, according to Stanton, who spoke to N'dea Yancey-Bragg of USA Today. If the scientists are successful in obtaining DNA from the wolf's head, they will try to use it to ascertain whether the prehistoric wolves interbred with contemporary ones, how inbred the older species was, and whether the lineage possessed—or lacked—any genetic adaptations that contributed to its extinction.

As of now, a variety of well-preserved prehistoric animals have been discovered in the Siberian permafrost, including a 42,000-year-old foal, a cave lion cub, a "exquisite ice bird complete with feathers," as noted by Herridge, and "even a delicate Ice Age moth." These discoveries, in Dalén's opinion, can be largely due to a rise in mammoth tusk hunting and accelerated permafrost melting associated with global warming.

"The warming climate... means that more and more of these specimens are likely to be found in the future," Stanton stated in his interview with Smithsonian.

He also noted that "it is also likely that many of [them] will thaw out and decompose (and therefore be lost) before anyone can find... and study them."