Baby Mammoth Gives Up Secrets

By Mary Papenfuss,  Newser Staff
Posted May 3, 2009 8:50 AM CDT
Baby Mammoth Gives Up Secrets
Scientists examine the frozen carcass of a 37,000-year-old baby mammoth that was discovered in a remote region in northern Siberia.   (AP Photo/Sergei Cherkashin)

A nearly perfectly preserved 37,000-year-old baby mammoth is giving up tantalizing secrets about her species, scientists report. The creature, dubbed Lyuba by researchers, still sports clumps of hair and eyelashes, according to the Telegraph. Scientists have been able to examine stomach contents and the mineral makeup of the bones and teeth in the animal, found 2 years ago by reindeer herders in Siberia.

"No other specimen preserves this much of the original anatomy," said a researcher. "When I saw her, my first thought was, 'Oh my goodness, she's perfect.' It looked like she'd just drifted off to sleep. Suddenly what I'd been struggling to visualize for so long was lying right there for me to touch." (More Mammoth stories.)

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