LYAKHOVSKY ISLANDS, Russia — Scientists in Russia have announced the discovery of a fully-developed female mammoth, complete with blood and well-preserved
tissue trapped in ice.
The scientists have revealed they also found mammoth blood during the excavation of the ancient animal on the Lyahovsky Islands located in the Arctic seas of northeastern Russia.
The dark blood of the animal was reportedly found in ice below the belly of the frozen carcass. When researchers broke through the ice with a pick, the blood flowed out, surprising the scientists since the temperature was at a very cold 14 degrees Fahrenheit.
One of the scientists theorized that mammoths may have some type of natural antifreeze in their blood.
“It can be assumed that the blood of mammoths had some cryo-protective properties,” Semyon Grigoriev, head of the Museum of Mammoths of the Institute of Applied Ecology of the North at the North Eastern Federal University told the Interfax news agency.
It was also reported that the tissue recovered from the ice-trapped mammoth had the look and color of fresh meat.
The scientists working on the excavation have speculated that when alive (between 10,0000 and 15,000 years ago) the mammoth may have weighed at least three tons. It is believed that the animal was between 50 to 60 years old when it died.
An international team of scientists are expected to examine the blood and tissue samples from the mammoth later this summer.
Despite the recovery of other frozen carcasses in Siberia, living DNA cells of mammoths have not been recovered to clone the species. However, the discussion about bringing the animal back to life has met with a lot of controversy among the scientific community.
Mammoths are believed to have died out around 4,000 years ago. But the exact cause of the extinction is still being debated by scientists.
