MOSCOW (RUSSIA) – Scientists are carefully studying the well-preserved skeleton of an adult woolly mammoth that lived 10,000 years ago. The remains were discovered by local residents in a lake in north Siberia.
Local people discovered parts of its skull, ribs and foreleg bones and some of them had soft tissue. The discovery was made in Yamal peninsula above the Arctic circle on July 23. A team of scientists are gleaning the site for more bones.
There have been similar discoveries in Siberia with climate change thawing the ground which has been long locked in permafrost.
According to Dmitry Frolov, director of the Scientific Centre for Arctic studies, researchers are yet to find out when exactly the mammoth roamed the earth and how old it was when it died.
Yevgeniya Khozyainova, a scientist, said it was quite unusual to find so many bones of a single species from one locality.
“Of course, we’d like to find the remaining parts, to understand how complete a find it is. Whenever there is soft tissue left behind, it is valuable material to study,” she said.
(Photos syndicated via Reuters)
This story has been edited by BH staff and is published from a syndicated field