| By cnw.com,
on 29-07-2009 18:38
|
Favoured : 1 |
In September 1993, placer miners working aclaim in the Klondike found a fossil that
has been radiocarbon dated and identified as a 26,000-year-old Yukon horse that once
roamed the plains of Eastern Beringia.
Discovered by Sam and Lee Olynyk and Ron Toews, the Yukon horse is the
best preserved specimen of a mummified, extinct large mammal ever found in
Canada. Following scientific analysis on the carcass and hide restoration, the
Yukon horse has become the newest member in an impressive collection of
exhibits belonging to the Yukon Beringia Interpretive Centre.
"The Yukon Horse exhibit adds an important piece of Beringia history to
an already impressive list of recent scientific discoveries in the Yukon,"
Elaine Taylor, Tourism and Culture Minister said. "We are proud of the work
done to date to learn from this wonderful artifact and the collaboration among
industry, governments and the scientific world, which is helping to ensure
special discoveries like the Yukon Horse are preserved and shared for today
and future generations."
The three miners who discovered the rare fossil contacted the Yukon
government who in turn contacted C.R. (Dick) Harington at Ottawa's Canadian
Museum of Nature.
Scientists in Ottawa began treatment of the hide and soft
tissue, analyzed the animal's intestinal contents as well as radiocarbon dated
a bone sample. The results of these tests have substantially changed the
scientific view about the Yukon horse. The hide showed that the animal looked
something like Przewalskii's horse which still survives today in Mongolia.
"The Yukon horse, a relatively small horse closely related to the modern
horse occupied the steppe-like grasslands of Eastern Beringia," Harington
said. "It was one of the commonest species known from that region, along with
steppe bison, woolly mammoths and caribou. We are grateful to local placer
miners for their magnificent cooperation with scientists in helping to
establish our knowledge of this important, now extinct, species."
While horses originated in North America around 55 million years ago,
genetic studies suggest that a single Late Pleistocene horse species ranged
from western Europe to Eastern Beringia, with Yukon horses becoming extinct
about 12,000 years ago. Modern horses were re-introduced to North America by
European settlers in the 1500s.
The Yukon horse exhibit is displayed at the Yukon Beringia Interpretive
Centre located on the Alaska Highway in Whitehorse, Yukon. To learn more about
this centre and the exhibit visit their website at www.beringia.com
Last update : 31-07-2009 11:20
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