× Thanks for reading! Log in to continue. Enjoy more articles by logging in or creating a free account. No credit card required. Log in Sign up {{featured_button_text}}

It's a gnarled beast, but more than 9,000 years of being frozen solid in the Siberian tundra hadn't exactly been beauty rest.

The permafrost conditions, however, did preserve one beauty of a specimen for the world of natural science. A yak at first glance, the creature is actually a 9,300-year-old mummified bull Steppe bison that has remained completely intact, one of only two ever discovered.

Sadly, despite weighing almost two-thirds of a ton, he apparently died because he couldn't find enough to eat.

Because of its connection to a pair of local scientists, the bison may be making an appearance at the Mammoth Site in Hot Springs.

Two researchers from the Mammoth Site, Olga Potapova and Larry Agenbroad, spent much of the last three years helping a team of Russian scientists study the mummy known now as the Yukagir Bison, named for the community of Yukagir in eastern Siberia, where it was found in 2010.

Long extinct, the species is believed to have died off near the end of the Ice Age roughly 10,000 years ago with the likes of saber-toothed tigers and mammoths.

Despite such a gap in time, a physical likeness of the mummified bison can still be seen among American bison like those roaming Custer State Park today.