Researchers in Siberia are trying to learn more about a baby mammoth whose nearly-intact remains were found in thawing permafrost after more than 50,000 years.
According to Reuters, the animal was found in the Batagaika crater, part of northeastern Russia, likely due to climate change. As permafrost melts, scientists are able to discover prehistoric animals such as mammoths like this one, bison,and dogs.
The mammoth weighs 240 pounds, according to Reuters. The mammoth is one of seven mammoth carcasses found worldwide.
Researchers from the Lazarev Mammoth Museum Laboratory and North-Eastern Federal University who have worked with the remains did not immediately respond to USA TODAY’s requests for comment Friday.
According to Maxim Cherpasov, head of the Lazarev Mammoth Museum Laboratory, the mammoth likely died when it was just over a year old but scientists need to conduct more tests to confirm this though.
The team told Reuters they recovered the carcass using an improvised stretcher.
What makes this finding so unique, the researchers told Reuters, is that the mammoth’s head and trunk survived all these years.
“The part that thaws out first, especially the trunk, is often eaten by modern predators or birds,” Cherpasov said to Reuters. “Even though the forelimbs have already been eaten, the head is remarkably well preserved.
Yana isn’t the only find researchers have made in the area recently. Last month, scientists found 32,000-year-old remains of a sabre-toothed cat cub. Earlier this year, they found a 44,000-year-old wolf carcass, Reuters reported.
Remains such as these are often found mummified in places such as Alaska and Russia, wrote the National Park Service or NPS on its website. Mammoth mummies are created when an animal is buried by sediments shortly after its death. If there is a rise in the permafrost table, the carcass freezes into a preserved state.
This preserved state leads to mummification and as time progresses, the dry, frozen soil sucks moisture out of the carcass, similar to freezer-burned meat, according to researchers from the University of Alaska at Fairbanks.
Mummification has made it possible for researchers to learn all that is known today about mammoths, the NPS said.
“That is how the mammoth’s hand-like trunk and toupee-like tuft at the top of its head were discovered,” the park service said.
As for Yana, scientists at a research center and museum at North-Eastern Federal University will study her, reported the AP.
Her remains will help them learn more about the way mammoths lived their lives and adapted to their surroundings.
Saleen Martin is a reporter on USA TODAY’s NOW team. She is from Norfolk, Virginia – the 757. Follow her on Twitter at@SaleenMartin or email her atsdmartin@usatoday.com.