Russian scientists showed off yesterday the remarkably well-preserved remains of a baby mammoth found in the permafrost-covered region of Yakutia.
The 50,000-year-old female mammoth has been nicknamed “Yana” after the river in whose basin it was discovered this summer.
Experts say that “Yana” is the best preserved mammoth carcass in the world and is one of only seven whole remains ever found.
Studies will now be carried out to work out her exact age at death, estimated at “one year old or a bit more”.
The carcass was shown at the Federal University of the North East in the regional capital of Yakutsk, the institution said in a statement.
“We were all surprised by the exceptional preservation of the mammoth,” rector Anatoly Nikolayev said.
Researcher Maxim Cheprasov said it was a “unique discovery”.
The remains weigh 180kg (397 pounds) and are 120cm (4’) tall and 200cm long.
The carcass was dug up near the Batagaika research station where the remains of other prehistoric animals – a horse, a bison and a lemming – have also been discovered.
Yana, resembling a small elephant with a trunk, was recovered from the Batagaika crater, a huge depression more than 80m (260’) deep which is widening as a result of climate change.
The carcass was brought to the surface on an improvised stretcher, said Maxim Cherpasov, the head of the Lazarev Mammoth Museum Laboratory in the city of Yakutsk.
“As a rule, the part that thaws out first, especially the trunk, is often eaten by modern predators or birds,” he told Reuters. “Here, for example, even though the forelimbs have already been eaten, the head is remarkably well preserved.”
It is the latest of a series of spectacular discoveries in the Russian permafrost.
Last month, scientists in the same vast northeastern region - known as Sakha or Yakutia – showed off the 32,000-year-old remains of a tiny sabre-toothed cat cub, while earlier this year a 44,000-year-old wolf carcass was uncovered.
Before this discovery, only six mammoth carcasses had been found in the world – five in Russia and one in Canada, the university said.
Yakutia is a remote region bordering the Arctic Ocean. Its permafrost acts like a giant freezer which preserves the remains of prehistoric animals.
This handout picture taken and released by the North-Eastern Federal University shows the carcass of a baby mammoth, which is estimated to be over 50,000 years old, during its presentation in Yakutsk. (AFP)
