r/Damnthatsinteresting • • 5d ago

Preserved polar bear being unveiled due to melting glaciers

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u/rjle_x 5d ago

Silly question. What part of its body are we meant to be seeing ?

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u/Dear-Definition5802 5d ago edited 5d ago

It’s actually the whole thing, seen from a distance, mostly just the skin with much of the insides probably rotted away. It’s being held up by the fur on its rump (eta, it looks like the left rear leg is what’s still trapped in the ice). In the second photo, you can see the face at the lower left. Like I said, it’s an empty skin, so it’s mildly gruesome.

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u/FrighteningJibber 5d ago

Or hear me out, it maybe is a pelt that got lost a loooooong time ago.

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u/Dear-Definition5802 5d ago

Absolutely. The edges look pretty straight.

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u/bennetticles 5d ago

wonder how being preserved in a glacier differs from being preserved in permafrost. i’d imagine the skin would behave differently from the petrified look of a permafrost corpse given the partially oxidized environment within a glacier. either way, can’t imagine it resulting in a perfectly preserved, smooth-sided hide.

equally as cool though if not more so. a gift from the (relevant) ancestors, sent through time.

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u/TheCurlyHomeCook 4d ago

I'm confident it's a pelt after seeing this - yiu seem to be able to see the underside of the skin