Discover the mummy of a young mammoth

After thousands of years buried in permafrost in northwest Siberia, the tiny mammoth is now put to the surface, and may be the best specimen of this genre. The frozen body was sent to Japan for detailed research.

The 6-month-old female elephant was found on Russia's Yamal peninsula and is believed to have died 10,000 years ago. Its eyes and taps are intact, along with several body hairs.

Mammoths are extinct members of the elephant family. Adults often have tusks and cover a long coat outside their bodies.

The 130-centimeter specimen, weighing 50 kilograms, was determined at the end of the last Ice Age, the time when large mammals were disappearing from the earth."In terms of conservation, this may be the most valuable discovery in the world," said Alexei Tikhonov, deputy director of the Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

So far, only three other specimens of immature mammoths have been known. Some scientists are hoping that finding sperm or intact cells that contain genetic DNA will help reconstruct mammoths, even cloning them.

The small mammoth was found less than 1 year old. (Photo: Itar-tass)

T. An