[Illusion]

A man herding reindeer in Russia's Arctic found the perfectly-preserved, 40,000-year-old body of a baby woolly mammoth.

The creature's carcass was sticking up out of the permafrost, local officials said. The discovery came in the same area a mammoth calf dubbed Lyuba was found four years ago, authorities told Reuters. They are sending out an expedition to examine the find and possibly recover it.

"If it is true what is said about how it is preserved, this will be another sensation of global significance," expedition leader Natalia Fyodorova said in a statement on the Arctic Yamalo-Nenetsk region's website.

Scientists hope to bring the remains to the regional capital Salekhard, where it would be stored in a cooler to prevent decomposition.

Giant woolly mammoths have been extinct for at least 12,000 years. In the case of Lyuba, arctic ice kept the mammoth so well preserved that skin and organs were intact. She was named for the wife of the hunter who discovered her.


Woolly mammoths grew to as much as 10 feet tall and eight tons. Some scientists believe it could be possible to bring the beast back from extinction is enough well-preserved genetic material can be taken from a preserved carcass. It is believed to be most directly related to the Asian elephant.




Perfectly preserved woolly mammoth is 40,000 years old.

[kellyhound]

cool

[gatagato]

This would be great news, thanks for sharing
But it seems it turned out ot be a walrus skull
Woolly mammoth calf fossil? No, just a wayward walrus

There was more than a ripple of excitement in the scientific community yesterday as news spread that a reindeer herder in an isolated part of northern Siberia had found a perfectly preserved, fossilised woolly mammoth calf.
It was initially claimed that the find was as well preserved as Lyuba, the female mammoth calf discovered in Siberia in 2007. Believed to have died around 40,000 years ago, Lyuba is the best preserved mammoth ever found.

Authorities in the Yamalo-Nenets region said yesterday morning they were scrambling a helicopter to the location. "If what is said about how it is preserved turns out to be true, this will be another sensation of global significance," said the leader of the expedition, Natalia Fyodorova.

Disappointment was in store, however. "It turned out to be a walrus skull; apparently a fossilised one," said Ms Fyordorova, who is the director of the local museum. Still, she managed to put a brave face on the find. "It's still a good present for us. We don't have any walruses yet," she said.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/wo...s-2340828.html

[kellyhound]

lol

[**butterflylove**]

awesome

[Zodiak]

Named a mammoth after his wife? What a gentleman.

[sassieroses]

I guess they will try and get genetic material to "clone" the mammoth according to that first article. Didn't those scientist learn anything from watching Jurassic Park?!?!?!?