World’s best ancient baby woolly mammoth remains found in ‘Mouth of Hell’…& mummy is so intact we KNOW what killed her
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THIS is the world’s “best preserved” baby woolly mammoth that has been found in a Siberian crater known as the Mouth of Hell. Nicknamed Yana, the mini mammoth lived more than 50,000 years ago, but is preserved so well that scientists know what killed her.
![[The world's best-preserved woolly mammoth, named Yana, was found in the summer but only just announced by Russian scientists]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/found-permafrost-soil-siberian-crater-959455442.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
She evidently suffered a fatal injury to her back during the Ice Age, when she was around one year old. She was preserved in the permafrost in the Batagai megaslump, a rapidly expanding thermokarst depression in the Yakutia region of Russia, which is visible from space and also known as Gateway to the Underworld.
![[Scientists noticed damage to her back, which they believe was the cause of her death]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/found-permafrost-soil-siberian-crater-959455446.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
Of seven baby woolly mammoths ever found, Yana’s body is the most intact, with her trunk clearly visible and “uniquely preserved”. The “incredible” remains were found this summer but only announced now by Russian scientists. The mammoth was just 4ft tall at the withers but weighed around 180kg - or 28 stone.
The extinct limbs had been pecked at by ancient sparrows or small mammals, but all the organs remain intact. Maxim Cheprasov, head of the Mammoth Museum laboratory, North Eastern Federal University, Yakutsk, said: “The examination showed that the head is uniquely preserved, as are all the organs.
![[Scientists in Russia working on the mammoth's remains]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/found-permafrost-soil-siberian-crater-959455439.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
“This is very good. “The trunk, lips, ears, eye sockets are preserved - they were not eaten by predators. “We have already noticed that the limbs were eaten, possibly by sparrows or small mammals, but the trunk and other parts of the head are uniquely preserved.
![[Permafrost is melting in the Batagaika crater, unveiling organic matter that has been frozen for tens of thousands of years]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/batagai-megaslump-known-mouth-hell-959455444.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
