Researchers in Russia unveiled the remarkably well-preserved remains of a 50,000-year-old female baby mammoth on Monday. Discovered this summer in thawing permafrost in the Yakutia region of Siberia, the mammoth, nicknamed “Yana” after the nearby river, is considered the best-preserved mammoth carcass ever found. Experts claim it is one of only seven complete mammoth remains ever unearthed.
Yana, estimated to be about one year old at the time of her death, weighs over 397 pounds and measures approximately four feet and 200 centimeters in length. “We were all surprised by the exceptional preservation of the mammoth,” stated Anatoly Nikolayev, rector of the North-Eastern Federal University, where the carcass is currently on display. The mammoth, resembling a small elephant with a trunk, was found near the Batagaika research station, a site known for yielding other prehistoric animal remains, including a horse, bison, and lemming.
Maxim Cherpasov, head of the Lazarev Mammoth Museum Laboratory in Yakutsk, highlighted the unusual survival of the mammoth’s head and trunk. He told Reuters that these body parts typically thaw and decompose first, often falling prey to modern predators or scavengers. “As a rule, the part that thaws out first, especially the trunk, is often eaten by modern predators or birds. Here, for example, even though the forelimbs have already been eaten, the head is remarkably well preserved,” Cherpasov explained.
Prior to this discovery, only six complete mammoth carcasses had been found globally—five in Russia and one in Canada. Yakutia, a remote Arctic region, boasts extensive permafrost that acts as a natural freezer, preserving the remains of prehistoric animals for millennia.