The remains of animals dating back more than 10,000 years have been found in a cave in northern Norway providing the oldest example of an animal community living in the European Arctic region.
Forty-six types of mammals were found, as well as fish and birds.
The discovery, which includes polar bear, walrus, bowhead whale and Atlantic puffin, provides “a rare snapshot of a vanished Arctic world”, according to scientists.
Also found were the remains of collared lemmings which are now extinct in Europe and had not been found in Scandinavia before.
The team say the study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), will help show how wildlife has responded to dramatic climate shifts in the past as the animal community dates to a warmer period of the ice age.
How did their date go?
Don’t get me wrong, this is a fascinating discovery, but from the headline alone I thought they found live animals in an underwater cave or something along those lines. It’s all fossils though, many are mammals.
