In a remarkable discovery that has captivated the scientific community, researchers have unearthed the remarkably well-preserved remains of a mammoth believed to be over 10,000 years old.
A local reindeer herder in Russia has come across a sensational discovery: the remains of a teenage woolly mammoth with soft tissue still intact. Fragments of the skeleton, the skin, its feet, soft tissues, and possibly even the head of the mammoth were discovered washed ashore in the Russian arctic lake Pechenelava-To on the Yamal peninsula.
The Arctic, climate change and what’s in the ice
Climate change is heating the Arctic faster than the rest of the world, leaving the remnants of animals and artifacts of a time long gone out in the open. According to the Siberian Times, the woolly mammoth was found by a man from the nearby village who was walking near the lake when he stumped up the washed-up remains of a well-preserved woolly mammoth in the Arctic Lake Pechenelava-To, near the village of Seyakha, in the northern Russian peninsula of Yamal.
A 10,000-year-old woolly mammoth
As revealed by experts, the woolly mammoth is at least 10,000 years old and is one of the most complete specimens discovered in Russia’s Arctic region. In addition to its nearly complete skeleton, researchers say that they’ve identified the fossilized droppings of the animal, something that will help them understand the kind of food that the creature consumed around 10,000 years ago.
A woolly mammoth dubbed Tadibe
The woolly mammoth, dubbed Tadibe in honor of its discoverer Konstantin Tadibe, is one of the best-preserved examples discovered so far: researchers say up to 90% of the animal has been found, with the remaining 10% likely still beneath the waters of the lake. Experts even believe they may have located the whole head of the creature, so they hope to recover the animal’s brain, which would be the second of this extinct species to be preserved.
Likely a young mammoth
“Judging from what we saw at first glance, it could be a young mammoth, but we must wait for the study results to come back to determine its exact age at the time of death and how old the remains are,” said Dmitry Frolov, director from the Arctic Research Center.
So far, as many as three fossilized remains have been found at the Yaman Peninsula, likely a popular destination for woolly mammoths tens of thousands of years ago. The world’s best-preserved woolly mammoth–Lyuba–was found on the peninsula thirteen years ago, in 2007. Lyuba is thought to have been no more than a month old when she died more than 40,000 years ago.
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