An amazingly well-preserved head of an ancient wolf has been identified. A Russian man named Pavel Efimov was out for a walk last summer when he came across a startling sight. Along the shore of the Tirekhtyakh River in Siberia’s Yakutia, he spotted a huge severed animal head. On closer inspection, it looked like it could be a wolf–with a full head of hair. Its long sharp teeth were intact, making the beast look as if it were still snarling.

The scientists that Efimov carried the head to ran many tests and have just concluded that it was indeed a wolf and estimated the animal was about 40,000 years old. The head alone measured a whopping 16 inches in length. And, yes, the brain was intact.

“This is a unique discovery of the first-ever remains of a fully grown Pleistocene wolf with its tissue preserved,” paleontologist Albert Protopopov from the Republic of Sakha Academy of Sciences told The Siberian Times. “We will be comparing it to modern-day wolves to understand how the species has evolved and to reconstruct its appearance.”