Palaeontology

Boy finds well-preserved body of mammoth

By T.K. Randall
October 6, 2012 ·  9 comments

Image Credit: Rama Zhenya Salinder had been walking his dogs in Sopochnaya Karga when he came across the remains in the permafrost. A team of experts spent five days extracting the mammoth from the ground using axes, shovels and a special steamer device to help melt small layers of permafrost. The creature was believed to be 16 years old when it died and has been named Zhenya after the boy who found it.

Well-preserved mammoth carcasses are particularly important to researchers as not only can they provide useful information and clues about the species but there is also a chance of finding soft tissues that can be used in cloning.

Source: BBC News | Comments (9)

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