Scientists in a laboratory in the Far East of Russia cut incisions and carefully collected samples, looking like pathologists after lesions.
But the body they analyzed was a baby mammoth who died about 130,000 years ago.
The calf discovered last year – nicknamed Yana, is the river basin where she was discovered – is in a prominent state of conservation that gives scientists a glimpse of the past and as climate change melts, the future may be future.
Yana’s skin retains the taupe color and red hair. Her wrinkled torso bent and pointed at her mouth. The tracks of her eyes are completely recognizable, and her strong legs resemble modern elephants.
This necromancy – an autopsy of animals – is an opportunity to understand our planet’s past,” said Artemy Goncharov, head of the functional genomics and proteomics laboratory at the St. Petersburg Laboratory Medical Institute.
Scientists hope to find unique ancient bacteria and perform genetic analysis of plants and spores to learn more about where and when she lives.
The calf largely avoided the destruction of time as she lay in the permafrost of the Siberian Saka region for thousands of years.
Russian scientists say that the shoulders are 1.2 meters (nearly four feet), 2 meters long and weigh 180 kilograms (nearly 400 pounds), Yana is probably the best preserved mammoth specimen ever, retaining internal organs and soft tissue.
– Stomach, intestines –
The analysis of her body was an autopsy in late March at the Mammoth Museum in Yakutsk’s Mammoth Museum in Yakutsk’s Northeast Federal University, the capital of the Yakutsk region, a treasure house of six scientists.
Zoologists and biologists wore white sterile bodysuits, goggles and face masks and worked for several hours in the previous quarter of the mammoth, a species that disappeared nearly 4,000 years ago.
“We can see a lot of organs and tissues that are well preserved,” Goncharov said.
“The digestive tract is partially preserved, and the stomach is preserved. The intestine remains fragmented, especially the colonic fragments,” he said. He was able to collect samples.
He said they were “looking for ancient microorganisms” to preserve in mammoths, so they could study “evolutionary relationships with modern microorganisms.”
One scientist used scissors to cut Yana’s skin, while another scientist used a scalpel to cut an incision into the inner wall. They then placed the tissue samples in test tubes and bags for analysis.
Another table holds the mammoth’s hind limbs, which is still embedded in the cliff when it is below the current quarter.
The smell from the mammoth is reminiscent of a mixture of fermented soil and meat impregnated in the underground soil of Siberia.
“We are trying to reach the genitals,” said Artyom Nedoluzhko, director of the Paleontology Laboratory at European University in St. Petersburg.
“Using special tools, we wanted to get into her vagina to collect materials to understand her living microbiome.”
– “Milk Ivory” –
Yana was first estimated to die 50,000 years ago, but now has more than 130,000 years of history after analyzing the permafrost she lays down.
As for her age of death, “It’s obvious that she’s been over a year because her milk ivory has appeared.”
Both elephants and mammoths had early milk tusks, which later fell off.
Scientists have not yet determined why Yana died at such a young age.
Cheprasov said that while the herbivorous mammal was chewing the meadow, “there are no humans on the territory of Yakutia” because they appeared between 28,000 and 32,000 years ago in modern Siberia.
The secret to Yana’s special preservation is the permafrost: the soil in this area of Siberia is frozen year-round, like a huge freezer, retaining the bodies of prehistoric animals.
Yana’s exposed body’s discovery was caused by melting permafrost, which scientists believe is due to global warming.
Goncharov said the microbiology of this ancient remains also explored the “biological risks” of global warming.
He explained that some scientists are studying whether the melting of permafrost can release potentially harmful pathogens.
“There are some assumptions or conjectures that pathogenic microorganisms that may be preserved in permafrost, and when it thaws, they can enter water, plants and bodies of animals and plants and humans – and humans,” he said.
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