Researchers in Siberia are testing a juvenile mammoth whose remarkably preserved remains have been discovered in thawing permafrost after more than 50,000 years.
The creature, which resembles a small elephant with a trunk, was recovered from Batagaika Crater, a large depression more than 80 meters (260 ft) deep that is widening as a result of climate change.
The body, which weighed more than 110 kilograms (240 pounds), was brought to the surface on a homemade stretcher, said Maxim Cherpasov, head of the Lazarev Mammoth Museum Laboratory in the city of Yakutsk.
He said the mammoth was probably a little more than a year old when it died, but tests would allow scientists to confirm that more precisely. The fact that its head and trunk survived was particularly unusual.
“As a rule, the part that molts first, especially the trunk, is often eaten by modern predators or birds. Here, for example, although the forelimbs have already been eaten,” Cherpasov said. , the head is very well preserved,” Cherpasov said. Reuters.
This is the latest in a series of spectacular discoveries in Russian permafrost. Last month, scientists in the same vast northeastern region – known as Sakha or Yakutia – discovered the 32,000-year-old remains of a small saber-toothed kitten, compared to a 44,000-year-old earlier this year. The body of a year-old wolf was found.