Russian scientists have revealed the remains of a 50,000-year-old baby mammoth found in thawing permafrost in the remote Yakutia region of Siberia over the summer.
They say “Yana” – named after the river basin where she was discovered – is the world’s best preserved mammoth carcass.
Weighing over 100kg (15st 10lb), measuring 120cm (4ft) tall and 200cm tall, Yana was estimated to have been around a year old when she died.
Before this find, only six similar discoveries had been made worldwide: five in Russia and one in Canada.
Yana was found in Batagaika Crater, the world’s largest permafrost crater (ground that is permanently frozen), by people living nearby.
The residents “were in the right place at the right time,” said the head of the Lazarev Mammoth Museum Laboratory.
“They saw that the mammoth was almost completely thawed” and decided to build a makeshift stretcher to lift the mammoth to the surface, Maxim Cherpasov said.
“As a rule, the part that thaws first, especially the trunk, is often eaten by modern predators or birds,” he told Reuters news agency.
But “even though the front legs have already been eaten, the head is remarkably well preserved,” he added.
A researcher at the museum, Gavril Novgorodov, told Reuters that the mammoth “probably got stuck” in a swamp, and “was thus preserved for several tens of thousands of years.”
Yana studies at the Northeastern Federal University in the regional capital Yakutsk.
Scientists are now conducting tests to confirm when the animal died.
It’s not the only prehistoric discovery discovered in Russia’s vast permafrost in recent years, as long-frozen ground begins to thaw due to climate change.
Last month, scientists in the same region revealed the remains of a partially mummified body of a saber-toothed cat, believed to be just under 32,000 years old.
And earlier this year, the remains of a 44,000-year-old wolf were also uncovered.
