That is what the children’s teeth, 31,000 years old, above the Arctic Circle, said.

The Frozen Archive — And What Is At Risk

There is a dimension of this story that connects directly to the present day, and it is uncomfortable: the same climate change that is reshaping the modern world is actively destroying the permafrost archive that preserved the Yana teeth.

Permafrost — ground that remains below freezing throughout the year — covers approximately a quarter of the land area of the northern hemisphere.

In Siberia, permafrost can extend to depths of hundreds of meters, and it has been continuously frozen since the Pleistocene.