Woolly mammoth carcass found buried under ice for 42,000 years

The permafrost in Siberia has preserved the 35-day-old mammoth carcass in perfect condition for the past 42,000 years.

Of the few intact frozen animals from the Ice Age ever discovered, Lyuba, a young female woolly mammoth, is the most famous specimen, according to Earth Touch News.

Lyuba was born on a late spring day in Siberia some 42,000 years ago. She spent 35 days nursing at her mother’s heels before an accident caused her to sink into deep mud, unable to emerge. The cold mud that killed Lyuba contained a mix of acid-secreting bacteria and permafrost, leaving her one of the most intact mammoth specimens in the world.

A reindeer herder named Yuri Khudi from the Yamal Peninsula, Siberia, and his two sons were the first to discover Lyuba’s frozen body exposed on a sandbar along the Yuribey River in May 2007. Khudi and his friend Kirill Serotetto notified local authorities who came to collect the baby mammoth’s carcass.

Part of Lyuba’s tail and right ear had been chewed off by stray dogs, but other than minor damage, the little animal looked almost perfect. After bringing Lyuba to the Shemanovsky Museum in Salekhard, scientists were able to examine her body. On the outside, the elephant still had its skin, fur, and even eyelashes. Upon closer inspection, the team discovered DNA, internal organs, and even its last meal.

From this wealth of information, paleontologists were able to determine every detail of the mammoth’s diet. Its stomach was full of milk and twice-digested plant foods. The mammoth was 35 days old when it died, and its cause of death was due to a blockage of its airway by humus.

The woolly mammoth was among the most iconic animals of the last Ice Age. For more than 100,000 years, it roamed the continents of Europe, Asia and North America, before disappearing along with many other large mammals in the Pleistocene extinction event.

Lyuba is the centerpiece of the Mammoths: Ice Age Giants exhibition, which runs at the Australian Museum in Sydney from November 2017 to May next year. During the exhibition, Lyuba is surrounded by models of adult mammoths that act as herd guards, keeping the young animal at a safe distance from visitors.

According to VNE