OAN Staff Blake Wolf
2:17 PM – Monday, December 23, 2024
Researchers in Siberia have revealed that they are conducting tests on a remarkably well-preserved juvenile mammoth after it was discovered in thawing permafrost, dating back to over 50,000 years ago.
The creature was recovered from the Batagaika crater, a massive depression over 260 feet deep. The carcass weighed over 240 pounds and was reportedly brought to the surface on an improvised stretcher, according to Maxim Cherpasov, the head of the Lazarev Mammoth Museum Laboratory in Yakutsk.
The 50,000-year-old is believed to be a female mammoth, nicknamed Yana. Experts say Yana is one of the best preserved mammoth carcasses in the world, with Cheprasov calling it a “unique discovery.”
Other prehistoric creatures have also been found in the region, including a 32,000-year-old tiny saber-toothed cat cub, and a 44,000-year-old wolf carcass.
“We were all surprised by the exceptional preservation of the mammoth,” stated Anatoly Nikolayev, the university rector at North-Eastern Federal University.
Researchers stated that the mammoth was most likely “one year old or a bit more” at the age of its death, but testing would allow scientists to more accurately confirm the creature’s age of death.
“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 stated.
Prior to the discovery, only six mammoth carcasses have been found in the world, including five in Russia, and one in Canada, according to officials at the North-Eastern Federal University.
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