Two new species of ice-age mammals have been discovered in the Yukon.
The fossil remains of a new weasel and steppe lemming (similar to a vole) have been unearthed around the Klondike gold fields.
The weasel is estimated to be about 1.5 million years old. It was found downstream from Fort Selkirk, an area that has also produced the remains of 11 other mammals, including one of the world's oldest caribou fossils.
All that is left of the ancient weasel is the teeth and parts of the jaw, said John Storer, a Yukon paleontologist who will be writing two scientific papers on the discoveries.
The steppe lemming was found in the Thistle Creek region and is approximately 600,000 years old, said Mr. Storer. This type of Eurasian rodent had not been found before in the Yukon.
Mr. Storer said the discovery adds another chapter to what is known about Beringia — where the floor of the Bering Sea was exposed, creating a grassland connection between Alaska and Siberia.
