A 50,000-year-old baby mammoth pulled from melting permafrost could be the best-preserved specimen ever found. Weighting more than 100kg, standing 120cm tall and estimated to have been one year old, Yana is one of just seven mammoth carcasses ever recovered.
Image Credit: Metro [This handout picture taken and released by the North-Eastern Federal University on December 23, 2024, shows the carcass of a baby mammoth, which is estimated to be over 50,000 years old, during its presentation in Yakutsk. Russian scientists on December 23, 2024 showed off the remarkably well preserved remains of a baby mammoth found in the permafrost-covered region of Yakutia. The 50,000-year-old female mammoth has been nicknamed "Yana" after the river in whose basin it was discovered this summer. The remains weigh 180 kilograms (397 pounds) and are 120 centimetres (four feet) tall and 200 centimetres long. The carcass was dug up near the Batagaika research station where the remains of other prehistoric animals -- a horse, a bison and a lemming -- have also been found. (Photo by Michil Yakovlev / North-Eastern Federal University in Yakutsk / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY CREDIT "AFP PHOTO / North-Eastern Federal University in Yakutsk / Michil Yakovlev" - NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS (Photo by MICHIL YAKOVLEV/North-Eastern Federal University in Yakutsk/AFP via Getty Images)]
One of those was in Canada, while the others were in Russia, including Yana, who was found in Batagaika crater by locals who ‘were in the right place at the right time’. In this eastern Russian region of Yakutia, bordering the Arctic Ocean, the ground is permanently frozen.
Image Credit: Metro [Batagaika crater]
But bit by bit, the mile-deep permafrost is melting, causing the thawing ground to sink and reveal the remains of animals remarkably preserved for thousands of years. This has earned the world’s largest permafrost crater the nickname – ‘gateway to the underworld’.
Image Credit: Metro [The carcass of a baby mammoth, which is estimated to be over 50,000 years old and was recently found in the Siberian permafrost in the Batagaika crater in the Verkhoyansky district of Yakutia, is seen behind glass fencing during a demonstration in the laboratory of the Mammoth Museum at the North-Eastern Federal University in Yakutsk, Russia, December 23, 2024. REUTERS/Roman Kutukov]
‘They saw that the mammoth had almost completely thawed out’, Maxim Cherpasov, head of the Lazarev Mammoth Museum Laboratory, said. ‘As a rule, the part that thaws out first, especially the trunk, is often eaten by modern predators or birds. ‘Even though the forelimbs have already been eaten, the head is remarkably well preserved.’.
Image Credit: Metro [A view of the Batagaika crater, as permafrost thaws causing a megaslump in the eroding landscape, in Russia's Sakha Republic in this still image from video taken July 11 or 12, 2023. Reuters TV via REUTERS]
In fact, the ‘unique discovery’ and preservation of Yana is so ‘exceptional’, it’s surprised staff of North-Eastern Federal University where the carcass now resides. Gavril Novgorodov, a researcher at the museum, speculates Yana ‘probably got trapped’ and was ‘thus preserved for several tens of thousands of years’.
![[Batagaika crater]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/PRI_215051374-beb5.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=634)
![[The carcass of a baby mammoth, which is estimated to be over 50,000 years old and was recently found in the Siberian permafrost in the Batagaika crater in the Verkhoyansky district of Yakutia, is seen behind glass fencing during a demonstration in the laboratory of the Mammoth Museum at the North-Eastern Federal University in Yakutsk, Russia, December 23, 2024. REUTERS/Roman Kutukov]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/SEI_234110289-db03.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
![[A view of the Batagaika crater, as permafrost thaws causing a megaslump in the eroding landscape, in Russia's Sakha Republic in this still image from video taken July 11 or 12, 2023. Reuters TV via REUTERS]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/SEI_205344467-c9fd.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
