Reindeer herders find well-preserved mammoth bones in Siberian lake

July 24, 2020

Russian scientists are excavating the well-preserved skeleton of a woolly mammoth that was found in a lake in northern Siberia, news agency AP reported Friday.

Fragments of the skeleton, which still has some ligaments attached, were discovered by local reindeer herders near the shore of Pechevalavato Lake in Russia’s Yamal-Nenets region earlier this week.

The herders found part of the mammoth’s skull, several ribs, and a fragment of its foot with ligament still attached.

Two men study the fragment of a mammoth bone found in a lake in Siberia

Only parts of the skeleton have so far been recovered from the Pechevalavato Lake in northern Russia

“The lake bottom mud may hold the rest of the mammoth skeleton,” Dmitry Frolov, the head of the Research Center for Arctic Studies told Russian news agency TASS.

It is necessary to record the exact location of the remains for further studies,” he added.

Full excavation will take time

On Friday, Russian television stations showed footage of scientists looking for more mammoth bones in the lakeside silt.

Several larger fragments have already been found following the original discovery this week. However, excavating the rest of the skeleton will require significant time and special equipment, assuming it all survived in position together, the scientists said.

Finding a complete mammoth skeleton is relatively rare, said Yevgeniya Khozyainova of the Shemanovsky Institute in Salekhard in televised remarks.

Heat wave melting Siberia’s permafrost

Experts believe that woolly mammoths died out around 10,000 years ago. Reaching 5.5 meters (18 feet) in height and weighing up to 12 tons, they were around twice the size and weight of today’s elephant.

The carcasses of several well-preserved mammoths have been uncovered in the permafrost of northern Siberia in recent years, as the region faces a rapid change of climate.

Siberia is currently experiencing a heat wave, in another warning sign to climate experts who believe rising temperatures could melt the permafrost and release immense amounts of carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere . On Friday, the UN weather agency warned that last month’s average temperatures there were 10 degrees Celsius (18 Fahrenheit) above normal.

Beasts that could come back from extinction

No fear of a t-rex sequel

Five films on, Jurassic Park still has us captivated by the idea of humans coming face-to-face with our planet’s most terrifying former inhabitants. But the fantasy of resurrecting a dinosaur from DNA in the belly of an amber-trapped mosquito is a long way from reality. Leading de-extinction scientists say making use of genetic material more than a million years old won’t be possible.

Beasts that could come back from extinction

And then there were two

Since the last male northern white rhino — a 45-year-old called Sudan — died earlier in 2018, elderly females Najon and Fatu are the last of their kind. But scientists hope that embryos in deep freeze could bring the “functionally extinct” species back from the edge. They were created in-vitro from the sperm of a deceased male northern white and the eggs of the closely related southern white.

Beasts that could come back from extinction

Not so dead after all?

When the dodo — a fatally trusting and tasty bird — disappered from Mauritius in the 17th century, few believed mankind could extinguish the life of an entire species. Only after 19th century naturalist Georges Cuvier proved extinction was possible did the dodo became a symbol of that destructive power. Now, the hunt is on for dodo DNA, in the hope we may also prove our power to resurrect.

Beasts that could come back from extinction

Fragile life

By the time the last Pyrenean ibex Celia died in 2000, scientists had already gathered and frozen her tissue cells. Three years later, a goat gave birth to Celia’s clone, created by injecting her DNA into a goat’s egg. In fact, dozens of hybrid eggs were implanted. Only seven animals became pregnant, and one carried to full term — and the resurrected ibex survived only a few minutes after birth.

Beasts that could come back from extinction

Passage from the past

This is Martha, the last passenger pigeon, who died in 1914. The plump North American birds were a favorite for the plate, and hunting combined with deforestation wiped them out even as conservationists warned of their senseless demise. Revive Restore, an organization that promotes “de-extinction,” sees the passenger pigeon as the perfect model project to show resurrection science’s potential.

Beasts that could come back from extinction

Numbat mother

European colonists in Australia put a bounty on the head of the thylacine, or Tasmanian tiger, a marsupial apex predator. The last known member of the species died in Hobart Zoo in 1936. Now, scientists have decoded the animal’s entire genome from a joey preserved in ethanol, and hope to insert its genes into the DNA of its closest surviving relative, a diminutive marsupial called the numbat.

Beasts that could come back from extinction

Pleistocene Park

The most impressive species with any chance of making a comeback is the woolly mammoth, whose closest living relative is the Asian elephant. Scientists at Harvard University say the ice-age giants could play a role in slowing permafrost melt and, therefore, climate change. But their “Pleistocene Park” concept would need 80,000 animals to have any real impact — pure science fiction, say critics.

Beasts that could come back from extinction

One heck of a cow

The auroch once roamed the length and breadth of Eurasia, but hunting and habitat loss wiped them out close to 400 years ago. Yet their descendents — domesticated cattle — live on, and “back-breeding” programs have tried to resurrect the auroch by selecting for characteristics of the wild ancestor. An early German attempt resulted in Heck cattle, which have been reintroduced to parts of Europe.

Beasts that could come back from extinction

Meet the ancestors

We once shared the planet with other human species, like the Neanderthal, with whom we even interbred. Many of us still carry Neanderthal DNA. But we are also prime suspects in their extermination. What would it be like to confront the relations we once wiped out? Scientists are growing homo sapiens-Neanderthal hybrid brain matter in the lab to examine the differences between them and us.

Author: Ruby Russell