Teenage woolly mammoth with soft tissues intact found on Yamal peninsula

Fragments of a well-preserved skeleton, the skin,  feet, soft tissues and possibly even the head of the woolly mammoth were found washed ashore and in the slit of Arctic Lake Pechenelava-To on the Yamal peninsula in the Russian Arctic. 

Potentially there might be remains of several other mammoths, or ‘Earth Bulls’ as they are called by the locals who reported the latest discovery. 

A team of Yamal-based scientist is flying to the site, planning to examine the area and retrieve the find frozen for tens of thousands of years in permafrost.

A team of scientsits is on way to the site where the new woolly mammoth was discovered. Pictures: Stanislav Vanuito

‘There is a complete head, ribs, various other bones as well as fragments of feet, soft tissues and pelt.

'According to the first information we have, the whole skeleton is there. Judging by the pictures this was a young mammoth, but we’ll have to wait for tests to give the exact age', said Dmitry Frolov, director of the Arctic Research Centre. 

Should the first cautious reports about the preserved head be confirmed, this might mean a rare hope to obtain a second brain of one of these Pleistocene Era giants.

Yuka the woolly mammoth, currently the world's only discovery with a preserved brain. Picture: RGO

So far there is only one preserved woolly mammoth brain in the world, found on mummified remains of strawberry-haired Yuka, a young mammoth discovered in 2014 in Yakutia. 

Some of the remains were washed ashore where they were noticed by people from Seyakha village.

They will be flown to Salekhard for research, with the scientists making a detailed map of other remains. Then a second scientific expedition will travel back to extract the rest of the skeleton buried in the slit.

Head of Seyakha village Stanislav Vanuito who was in touch with the scientists said that reindeer herders often see mammoth bones around the village.

Woolly mammoths found at the Yamal Peninsula. Picture: The Siberian Times

The world’s best preserved woolly mammoth named Lyuba was also found at the Yamal peninsula in 2007. 

Scientists have determined that the baby mammoth whose internal organs, eyes, trunk and some of the hair were intact died about 40 thousand years ago at the age of one month. 

Another Yamal discovery of a woolly mammoth calf was made in 1988.

A three month old female mammoth was found by the captain and the sailor of ‘Porog’ ship some 20 kilometres from the mouth of River Yuribeteyakha.

Lyuba and Masha the mammoths found at the Yamal peninsula. Pictures: Shemanovsky Museum