These scientists literally made a huge discovery.
Russian researchers have unveiled the remains of a baby mammoth that has been preserved almost perfectly for 50,000 years.
The female mammoth, nicknamed Yana after the river basin where it was discovered, was discovered in the thawing permafrost of the Batagaika crater in eastern Siberia.
According to the Associated Press, Jana weighs more than 220 pounds and is 47 inches tall. Scientists believe Yana was only one year old at the time of her death.
There were no signs of damage to the head, trunk, ears or mouth, said Anatoly Nikolayev, head of the Lazarev Mammoth Museum Laboratory at Northeastern Federal University in Yakutsk, eastern Siberia.
Batagaika Crater, also known as the “Gateway to the Underworld,” is 1 km (approximately 3,280 feet) deep. Fossils of other ancient animals have also been found here, including bison, horses, and dogs.
As the permafrost thaws, more prehistoric animal remains are being discovered.
Yana was discovered in June by a local resident who was in the right place at the right time.
“Local residents happened to be in Batagaika and noticed that a mammoth calf was partially disentangled from the wall about 130 feet below the ground,” said Maxim Cherpasov, director of the Lazarev Mammoth Museum Institute. He spoke to Russian state media TASS. .
He added that the discovery was a “unique research discovery” and that scientists were “astonished by its extraordinary state of preservation.”
“Yana is undoubtedly the best preserved in the world,” NEFU scientists said in a press release on Monday.
“As a rule, the parts that are thawed out first, especially the trunk, are often eaten by modern predators and birds. For example, here, the head is surprisingly well eaten, although the forelimbs have already been eaten. It has been preserved,” Cherpasov told Reuters.
Yana’s remains are one of only seven mammoth carcasses found worldwide.
The mammoth will be studied at Russia’s Northeastern Federal University, which has a mammoth research center and museum, where researchers hope to learn more about how the mammoth lived and adapted to its environment.
