The juvenile mammoth, which was found in a frozen cliff in Siberia, gives an important insight into the unknown secrets of the animal including hair and eye colour.

An examination of its body, described by scientists as having “huge significance”, is even said to show human beings “stole” their food from hunting lions, with wounds consistent with attack from both predators.

In found to be true, it will be the first evidence of interaction between mammoths and ancient humans ever found in the area.

The well-preserved mammal, which has been named Yuka, is thought to have been between three and four years old when it died and still has its foot pads and ginger hair in tact.

It may have lain unnoticed in its icy tomb for more than 10,000 years, experts said, with its injuries being perfectly frozen in time.

The find will be examined in a television programme for the BBC this evening.

Kevin Campbell, associate professor of environmental and evolutionary physiology at the University of Manitoba, told the BBC one of the most striking things about Yuka is its strawberry-blonde hair.

Mammoths have previously been thought to have darker fur, with the possibility of lighter-coloured coats only being proposed in 2006 when scientists analysed genes from a bone.

The find now provides direct evidence that this was the case and will help experts determine how eye and hair colour were spread among mammoth populations.

Professor Campbell said: "These are remarkably rare finds and have huge significance."

Other experts have highlighted the importance of serious injuries to the mammoth, which indicate ancient humans may have “stolen” the carcass from another predator.



They show young Yuka had a freshly broken leg and serious flesh wounds, as well as older scratches which may show it survived an earlier attack.

But, instead of only showing damage consistent with a lion attacks, the body also has cut marks and openings which appear more likely to have come from human beings.

Daniel Fisher, professor of earth and environmental sciences at the University of Michigan, said: “Already there is dramatic evidence of a life-and-death struggle between Yuka and some top predator, probably a lion.

“Even more interesting, there are hints that humans may have taken over the kill at an early stage.”

The mammoth was found by tusk hunters in Siberia before being acquired by the Mammuthus organisation, enabling experts to begin analysing it.

It is not the first mammoth body to be found, but it has unusually well-preserved soft tissue with muscle, skin and internal organs that are rarely found on carcasses.

The full programme, Woolly Mammoth: Secret from the Ice, is on BBC 2 at 9pm.

Source

Woolly mammoths were quite common in northern Eurasia and North American tens of thousands of year ago. They weren't much taller than African elephants but they were much larger and heavier. A fully grown mammoth could weigh up to 8 tons. They disappeared from the earth about 10,000 years ago during the Pleistocene era. They are however quite well known to scientists today because unlike other prehistoric animals many of their remains were not literally fossilized. This was due in part to the frozen climate they lived in and also to their massive size.

Although they have been extinct for thousands of years now there is talk about bringing them back to life due to advances in the science of DNA and a recent mammoth discovery. A well preserved woolly mammoth thigh bone that was discovered in August of this year in the permafrost soil of Siberia is causing all the talk. Japanese and Russian scientists are teaming up at the Sakha Republic’s mammoth museum and Japan’s Kinki University where they are launching a jointly funded research project next year with the goal of bringing the giant mammoth back to life. They believe they could possibly make a clone of the woolly mammoth within the next five years.

In order to clone a woolly mammoth, the perfectly intact bone marrow from this thigh bone has made it a great possibility. Scientists will extract cells from the mammoth and then replace the nuclei of egg cells from a modern elephant with those taken from the mammoth bone marrow cells. This should produce embryos with mammoth DNA. The embryos will then be implanted into elephant wombs for delivery. Since elephants and mammoths are so closely related it is speculated that all should go well. The whole process is probably going to take about four years from the starting point - two years to impregnate the elephant, and another two years for the gestation. The birth of a baby mammoth however might be quite trying for a typical female elephant due to their larger size.

Although this is very exciting news that seems to bring images of the movie "Jurassic Park" into mind, there is little need for this worry. The big difference is that there are not fully intact DNA samples available from the scarier dinosaurs such as Tyrannosaurus Rex. An interesting fact to note also is that it was only because of global warming that this mammoth bone was discovered.
For better or worse.







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