Nice find. I'm glad that they found the mammoth before the permafrost
melts.
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Baby mammoth find promises breakthrough
By Dmitry SolovyovWed Jul 11, 10:11 AM ET
The discovery of a baby mammoth preserved in the Russian permafrost
gives researchers their best chance yet to build a genetic map of a
species extinct since the Ice Age, a Russian scientist said on Wednesday.
"It's a lovely little baby mammoth indeed, found in perfect condition,"
said Alexei Tikhonov, deputy director of the Russian Academy of
Science's Zoological Institute, which has been taking care of the
mammoth since it was uncovered in May.
"This specimen may provide unique material allowing us to ultimately
decipher the genetic makeup of the mammoth," he told Reuters by
telephone.
The mammoth, a female who died at the age of six months, was named
"Lyuba" after the wife of reindeer breeder and hunter Yuri Khudi who
found her in Russia's Arctic Yamalo-Nenetsk region.
She had been lying in the frozen ground for up to 40,000 years, said
Tikhonov.
The hunter initially thought the mammoth was a dead reindeer when he
spotted parts of her body sticking out of damp snow.
When he realized it was a mammoth, scientists were called in and
transported the body to regional capital Salekhard, where she is now
being kept in a special refrigerator.
TREASURE TROVE FOR SCIENTISTS
Weighing 50 kg (110 lb), and measuring 85 centimeters high and 130
centimeters from trunk to tail, Lyuba is roughly the same size as a
large dog.
Tikhonov said the fact the mammoth was so remarkably well-preserved --
its shaggy coat was gone but otherwise it looked as though it had only
recently died -- meant it was a potential treasure trove for scientists.
"Such a unique skin condition protects all the internal organs from
modern microbes and micro-organisms ... In terms of its future genetic,
molecular and microbiological studies, this is just an unprecedented
specimen."
But Tikhonov dismissed suggestions the mammoth could be cloned and used
to breed a live mammoth. Cloning can only be done if whole cells are
intact, but the freezing conditions will have caused the cells to burst,
he Tikhonov.
Tikhonov said the next stop on Lyuba's odyssey would be the Zoological
Museum in Russia's second city of St Petersburg.
There, Lyuba will join a male baby mammoth called Dima who was unearthed
in Magadan in Russia's Far East in 1977 and until now was Russia's
best-known example of the species.
"They will make a nice couple, both roughly aged 40,000 years," Tikhonov
said.
From St Petersburg, Lyuba will go to Jikei University in Japan to
undergo three-dimensional computer mapping of her body. The mammoth will
then return to St Petersburg for an autopsy before being put on display
in Salekhard.
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http://tinyurl.com/yofden
--
John #1782
"We should always be disposed to believe that which appears to us to be
white is really black, if the hierarchy of the church so decides."
- Saint Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556) Founder of the Jesuit Order.
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