Giant wolf’s head found in permafrost

Scientists are investigating whether a giant, 40,000-year-old wolf’s head found perfectly preserved beneath Siberian permafrost could have been chopped off by hunters.

The severed head was found above the Arctic Circle by local man Pavel Efimov a year ago but was only announced by researchers studying the Ice Age mammal last week.

They are now trying to find out whether the massive animal was beheaded by expanding ice or had its head cut off by ancient Man, according to the Siberian Times. The latter would be a major surprise since humans not believed to have populated the northern area of icy Yakutia at the time.

“Our suggestion is that the head was separated by ice,” Russian scientist Dr. Albert Protopopov told the newspaper. “There are characteristic traces on the soft tissues, presumably left while the tissue was fresh or even alive.

“The effect is like an axe or sharp big knife.

“But we do not exclude that it could have been cut artificially … a meticulous study is needed.”

The cut to the animal’s neck is not typical of a severing by ice — it is less smooth, said Dr. Protopopov, from the Academy of Sciences of Sakha Republic.

Researchers are now planning another expedition to see if they can find other parts of body near where the first discovery was made.