A BABY mammoth has gone under the knife – after being preserved in Siberian permafrost for 130,000 years.
Russian scientists carried out a necropsy on the long-dead mammoth calf, nicknamed Yana.
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The creature was first revealed to the public in December 2024, and was described as the best-preserved mammoth found to date.
Yana’s post-mortem at Russia’s Mammoth Museum in Yakutsk lasted for hours, AFP reports, revealing the creature’s eerily well-preserved organs.
Almost all of her elephant-like front is intact, giving scientists a rare window into the past.
The remains of the 3.9-foot-tall body weigh a hefty 400lbs – equivalent to around two or three adult humans.
Read more on frosty finds
Yana’s carcass is so well preserved that the entire head and trunk are clearly visible – and scientists even located her milk tusks.
Like with humans and their baby teeth, these milk tusks would fall out with age.
“We can see that many organs and tissues are very well preserved,” said Artemy Goncharov, of the Institute of Experimental Medicine in Saint Petersburg, speaking to AFP.
“The digestive tract is partly preserved, the stomach is preserved.
“There are still fragments of the intestines, in particular the colon.”
He added that it was “an opportunity to look into the past of our planet”.
The mammoth species that Yana belonged to went extinct around 4,000 years ago.
Yana is believed to have died around one year into her life, but it’s still unclear why.
But our interference has been ruled out, as modern humans didn’t arrive in the area until between 28,000 and 32,000 years ago, scientists say.
Yana had been encased in Siberian permafrost – long-frozen earth – that had recently thawed.
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This exposed the creature’s body, but it was kept in place at the rear.
Scientists used scissors and scalpels to cut into the creature, and then analysed samples of her tissue.
And they described how Yana’s carcass smelled like “fermented earth and flesh”.
She was found in Siberia’s Sakha region, encased in frost for 130,000 years – far longer than the original estimate of 50,000 years.
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A timeline of life on Earth
The history of the planet in years…
- 4.6 billion years ago – the origin of Earth
- 3.8 billion years ago – first life appears on Earth
- 2.1 billion years ago – lifeforms made up of multiple cells evolve
- 1.5 billion years ago – eukaryotes, which are cells that contain a nucleus inside of their membranes, emerge
- 550 million years ago – first arthropods evolve
- 530 million years ago – first fish appear
- 470 million years ago – first land plants appear
- 380 million years ago – forests emerge on Earth
- 370 million years ago – first amphibians emerge from the water onto land
- 320 million years ago – earliest reptiles evolve
- 230 million years ago – dinosaurs evolve
- 200 million years ago – mammals appear
- 150 million years ago – earliest birds evolve
- 130 million years ago – first flowering plants
- 100 million years ago – earliest bees
- 55 million years ago – hares and rabbits appear
- 30 million years ago – first cats evolve
- 20 million years ago – great apes evolve
- 7 million years ago –first human ancestors appear
- 2 million years ago – Homo erectus appears
- 300,000 years ago – Homo sapiens evolves
- 50,000 years ago – Eurasia and Oceania colonised
- 40,000 years ago – Neandethal extinction
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Melting permafrost has revealed several long-frozen discoveries, including a 44,000-year-old wolf and perfectly-preserved lion cubs.
Just last year, scientists found a 35,000-year-old sabre-toothed tiger cub in the Siberian ice.
But scientists also fear that it could release dangerous pathogens that have been frozen in time.
There are some hypotheses or conjectures that in the permafrost there could be preserved pathogenic microorganisms,” warned Goncharov.
“Which when it thaws can get into the water, plants and the bodies of animals – and humans.”
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