Photos show well-preserved remains of 50,000-year-old baby mammoth found in Siberia
Researchers in Russia on Monday unveiled the remarkably well-preserved remains of a 50,000-year-old female baby mammoth found in thawing permafrost in the Yakutia region of Siberia.
The remains of the mammoth – which were nicknamed "Yana" after the river in whose basin it was discovered this summer – are the best-preserved mammoth carcass in the world. Experts said it is one of only seven whole remains ever found.
Yana is estimated to have been only about one year old when she died, weighs more than 397 pounds and measures about 4 feet and 200 centimeters long.
"We were all surprised by the exceptional preservation of the mammoth," said Anatoly Nikolayev, rector for the North-Eastern Federal University where the carcass is on display.
The mammoth, which resembles a small elephant with a trunk, was found near the Batagaika research station where the remains of other prehistoric animals — a horse, a bison and a lemming — have also been found.
Maxim Cherpasov, head of the Lazarev Mammoth Museum Laboratory in the city of Yakutsk, told Reuters that the fact that the animal's head and trunk survived was particularly unusual.
"As a rule, the part that thaws out first, especially the trunk, is often eaten by modern predators or birds. Here, for example, even though the forelimbs have already been eaten, the head is remarkably well preserved," Cherpasov said.
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 that preserves the remains of prehistoric animals.