In 2018, a perfectly-preserved foal was pulled from the permafrost in Siberia. It’s discovery, along with another horse from the Batagay crater, paved the way for scientists to solve the mystery of how Yakutian horses came to roam the landscape.
The question of when, where, and how humans first domesticated horses remains unresolved, but every year genetic research brings us closer to an answer. One fascinating piece of that puzzle lies in Yakutia, a region of Siberia where horses are not only a way of life but also symbols of cultural identity.
In the remote Batagay crater — ominously nicknamed the “gateway to the underworld” — melting permafrost has revealed remarkably preserved Ice Age animals. Among them was the famous 42,000-year-old Lena horse foal, discovered in 2018, its frozen hairs so lifelike that it seemed almost alive. Another stallion from Batagay, dated to around 5,200 years ago, yielded a pristine genome. Surprisingly, this horse had little in common with either the Botai horses — long suspected to be among the earliest domesticated — or the lineage of today’s domestic horses (known as DOM2). Instead, it belonged to the now-extinct Equus lenensis, the Lena horse.
Meanwhile, modern Yakutian horses, small but incredibly hardy, thrive in Siberia’s brutal climate. They survive with thick coats, the ability to pack on fat during brief summers, and even a slowed metabolism in the depths of winter. Legends suggest they descended directly from wild local horses like the Lena horse, but genetics tells another story.
By sequencing hair samples from living Yakutian horses and comparing them with archaeological specimens from the 19th century, researchers confirmed that Yakutian horses belong fully to the DOM2 lineage — descended from domestic horses that originated on the western Russian steppe about 4,200 years ago. Their arrival in Yakutia is relatively recent, likely tied to migrations in the 13th century, when horse-riding peoples fled north from the Mongol conquests.
That raises the question: did Yakutian horses inherit any genes from the Lena horses they might have encountered? The answer appears to be no. Unlike humans carrying a small portion of Neanderthal DNA, Yakutian horses show no trace of Lena horse ancestry. Instead, their resilience comes from centuries of natural selection acting on DOM2 horses that were introduced to the region.
What makes them remarkable is how their adaptations mirror those of other cold-adapted species. Genes linked to fat storage, dense fur, sugar metabolism, and circadian rhythms show convergence with animals such as the woolly mammoth — and even with humans who adapted to life in extreme northern latitudes.
In Yakutia today, horses remain more than livestock. They are a cornerstone of culture: sources of transport, food, clothing, stories, and national identity. And while they may not descend from the Lena horse of Batagay, their history tells a deeper truth — that survival in the coldest places on Earth is a story written not by a single “supergene,” but by evolution’s patient weaving of many small threads.