WERC researcher and Alaska Stable Isotope director Dr. Matthew Wooller made an interesting find when retrieving a lake sediment core from Quartz Lake located approximately 85 miles south of Fairbanks, Alaska. Expecting to find seeds, charcoal and other inorganic debris, Wooller stumbled upon bone fragments of an ancient critter instead. The remains, as identified at the UA Museum of the North, belong to an ancient Northern Pike. Radiocarbon dates revealed an age of 8800 years.
Find out more in this article Ancient northern pike found in lake mud and/or follow up on details in the recently published paper Post-glacial dispersal patterns of Northern pike inferred from an 8800 year old pike (Esox cf. lucius) skull from interior Alaska.
