Scientists Discover 50,000-Year-Old Baby Mammoth Under the World’s Largest Permafrost, Lucky It Wasn’t Eaten by Modern Predators
Scientists have recently shared with the world, that they have in their custody the remains of a 50,000-year-old baby mammoth from Siberia. The mammoth was found locked in the world's largest permafrost, Batagaika crater, stated BBC. The mammoth has been named "Yana" after the river basin where the locals discovered it. According to researchers, Yana is the best-preserved mammoth carcass they have ever encountered. The mammoth joins the long list of prehistoric animals uncovered from the region after it went through massive thawing due to climate change.
The mammoth has been identified as a female by experts, according to The New York Post. She was found to be around 220 pounds and 47 inches in length. As per examination, she must have been one year old at the time of her death. Anatoly Nikolaev, rector of the Lazarev Mammoth Museum Laboratory at the North-Eastern Federal University in Yakutsk, claims that there was no damage observed on the head, trunk, ears, and mouth of the recovered mammoth.
Yana was not the first mammoth to be uncovered from the Batagaika crater. In recent years, many ancient animals have found their way out of the permafrost of the region. Some of them include bison, horses, and dogs. The crater, also known as the "gateway to the underworld" in recent decades, has gone through expedited melting that has facilitated the coming out of the carcasses of many ancient animals. This melting is happening primarily due to climate change, as per NBC New York. The phenomenon is known as 'thawing.'
According to researchers, the mammoth possibly got caught in the swamp and never managed to get out, stated BBC. She died inside the ice and was "thus preserved for several tens of thousands of years." The ice around her began to melt in recent times and Yana's body was spotted by the locals. "The locals happened to be at Batagaika … and noticed that the mammoth calf had partially thawed from the wall, about [130 feet] below the surface," Maxim Cherpasov, head of the Lazarev Mammoth Museum Laboratory shared regarding Yana's discovery.
Researchers were shocked to see Yana in such an exceptional condition despite so many millenniums having passed away since she walked on Earth. It was not often that experts found carcasses in such an optimal state after so many years inside the permafrost. The only part that was eaten of Yana was her forelimbs because it was the portion that came out first from the ice and was possibly attacked by modern predators or birds. Along with Yana, seven mammoth fossils have been located so far.
At present, Yana is in Russia’s North-Eastern Federal University, a facility with a mammoth research center and museum for further examinations. Researchers hope that their analysis reveals the lifestyle of mammoths and how they adapted to changes around them. Yana's discovery follows the unveiling of a partial, mummified body of a saber-tooth cat just under 32,000 years old from the region, BBC stated. Other recent discoveries include uncovering a 44,000-year-old wolf at the beginning of 2024.