Natural Mummification: How Extreme Environments Preserve Ancient Life

In fantasy books and movies, the undead rise from fire and ice.

In the real world, mummies can emerge naturally from melting glaciers and dry desert caves.

Others were created when bodies were slowly dried in smoke and ash.

In this episode of Dead World, our new series about the most fascinating discoveries in archaeology and paleontology, we examine how extreme heat and cold preserved humans and animals for thousands of years.

From Ötzi the Iceman locked in an Alpine glacier to smoke-dried human mummies in ancient Asia, desiccated desert cheetahs, and a frozen Siberian wolf cub carrying woolly rhino DNA in its gut, these discoveries reveal lost cultures and extinct animal populations.

Through archaeological and genomic research, scientists are reconstructing their ancient lives.