Gold miner discovers perfectly preserved 30,000-year-old squirrel in frozen fur ball.

A gold miner in the Klondike gold fields near Dawson City, Yukon, found a mummified grapefruit-sized ground squirrel in 2018. X-ray scans revealed that the squirrel is 30,000 years old and likely died during hibernation. The Klondike gold fields have been covered in permafrost since the ice age, making the area perfect for preserving creatures that died back then. Discoveries like these are likely to become more common as global temperatures continue to rise due to human emissions of heat-trapping gases like carbon dioxide and methane, causing the permafrost to thaw and reveal everything from mummified creatures to viruses and anthrax deposits.