The world’s ‘best preserved’ baby woolly mammoth has been found in a Siberian crater known as the Mouth of Hell.
The mammoth, who has been named Yana, lived more than 50,000 years old and evidently suffered a fatal injury to her back during the Ice Age. She was around one-year-old when she was killed.
Yana 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.
Of seven baby woolly mammoths found in the world – six of them in Russia – Yana is the most intact, with her trunk clearly visible and ‘uniquely preserved’.
The ‘incredible’ remains were found this summer but only now announced by Russian scientists. The mammoth was 4ft tall at the withers, with a weight of around 180kg – or 28 stone, or almost 400lbs.
The extinct animal’s limbs had been pecked at by ancient sparrows or small mammals, but all the organs remain intact.
The ‘incredible’ remains of the world’s ‘best preserved’ baby woolly mammoth – who has been named Yana – was found in a Siberian crater known as the Mouth of Hell, located in the Yakutia region of Russia, last summer
Yana was preserved in the permafrost in the Batagai megaslump (pictured in June 2023) – a rapidly expanding thermokarst depression in the Yakutia region of Russia. The tadpole-shaped giant hole is 330ft deep and around 3,300ft in length, with a width of 2,650ft
Yana lived more than 50,000 years old and evidently suffered a fatal injury to her back during the Ice Age. Pictured is an artist’s impression of a woolly mammoth
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.
‘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.
‘Unfortunately, the back was damaged, as it apparently fell on its back.’
Locals exploring the crater ‘saw that more than half of the baby mammoth had already melted out of the wall of this sinkhole’.
The rear of the animal was retrieved separately, and is also preserved, but was not shown when the find was unveiled.
Major tests will be undertaken on the baby mammoth next year.
Researchers Gavril Novgorodov and Erel Struchkov pose for a picture next to the carcass of a baby mammoth, which is estimated to be over 50,000 years and was found in the Siberian permafrost in the Batagaika crater in Yakutia, Russia on June 13, 2024
Of seven baby woolly mammoths found in the world – six of them in Russia – Yana (pictured after being found in the Batagaika crater on June 13, 2024) is the most intact, with her trunk clearly visible and ‘uniquely preserved’
Yana’s remains were found in June 2024 (pictured) but only now announced by Russian scientists. The mammoth was 4ft tall at the withers, with a weight of around 180kg – or 28 stone, or almost 400lbs
An examination showed that Yana’s head is ‘uniquely preserved, as are all the organs’, experts have revealed
Maxim Cheprasov, head of the Mammoth Museum laboratory, North Eastern Federal University, Yakutsk, said that Yana’s ‘trunk, lips, ears, eye sockets are preserved – they were not eaten by predators’
Researchers stand behind glass fencing as they show the carcass of a baby mammoth, which is estimated to be over 50,000 years old and was found in the Siberian permafrost in the Batagaika crater in the Verkhoyansky district of Yakutia, during a demonstration in the laboratory of the Mammoth Museum at the North-Eastern Federal University in Yakutsk, Russia on December 23, 2024
The tadpole-shaped giant hole – also called Batagaika – is 330ft deep and around 3,300ft in length, with a width of 2,650ft.
Estimates suggest that the crater emits up to 5,000 tons of organic carbon per year, with potential for increased emissions as the thawing of permafrost continues.
Yana is the latest of a series of spectacular discoveries in the Russian permafrost.
Scientists also found a perfectly preserved prehistoric baby horse in the depression. The foal – some 42,170 years old – was from the cold-resistant Lenskaya species, which is now extinct.
Last month, researchers in the same vast northeastern region – known as Sakha or Yakutia – showed off the 32,000-year-old remains of a tiny sabre-toothed cat cub, while earlier this year a 44,000-year-old wolf carcass was uncovered.
The rear of the animal was retrieved separately, and is also preserved, but was not shown when the find was unveiled. Major tests will be undertaken on Yana (pictured) next year
Yana’s carcass, pictured, 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
Yana’s limbs were eaten, possibly by sparrows or small mammals, but the trunk and other parts of the head are uniquely preserved, researchers have said
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
