Well-preserved mammoth remains found on Russia's Arctic Sea coast

Dec 2, 2011, 8:35 GMT

Moscow - A Russian research institute will study the well-preserved remains of a prehistoric mammoth recently discovered near the shore of the Arctic Ocean, the Interfax news agency reported Friday.

The find was made in a small cave near the remote fishing village Yukagir on the Laptev Sea, some 4,400 kilometres north-east of the Russian capital Moscow, the report said.

The immature animal probably stood two metres tall, weighed 250 kilos and was ten years old when it died. Receding permafrost exposed its remains, a scientist said.

Skin, hair, bone, muscles and some internal organs survived in good condition in the natural grave for an estimated 40,000 years, and were now being held in a low-temperature chamber at a research institute in the east Siberian city Yakutsk, the report said.

A multi-national scientific team would begin an examination of the mammoth in February, which would include DNA testing, said Gennady Boyeskorov, a spokesman for the Yakutsk research institute.

A reindeer herder in Russia's Yamalo-Nemetsk territory, some 2,200 kilometres north-east of Moscow, in August found an almost perfectly-preserved, 40,000-year-old baby woolly mammoth body in receding permafrost.

The best-known Russian wooly mammoth find is Lyuba, an almost intact female calf discovered in 2007. Her remains now are on display in a traveling natural history exhibition on Ice Age wildlife.