50,000-Year-Old Baby Mammoth Discovered in Siberia Is ‘the Best-Preserved in the World,’ Expert Says

Mar. 15, 2025

A frozen mammoth was found in Russia.Photo:AFP PHOTO / North-Eastern Federal University in Yakutsk / Michil Yakovlev/Getty

AFP PHOTO / North-Eastern Federal University in Yakutsk / Michil Yakovlev/Getty

Nicknamed Yana, the female calf is just one of seven mammoth carcasses that have been recovered across the world, according toThe Associated PressandBBC.

“The locals happened to be at Batagaika at the right time and noticed that the mammoth calf had partially thawed from the wall, about [130 feet] below the surface,” Maxim Cheprasov, the head of the University’s Mammoth Museum’s laboratory told Russian state media outlet, TASS.

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The mammoth is said to measure in at 4 feet tall and less than 6.6 feet long. It also weighs about 400 lbs., per the reports. She is believed to have been just 1 year old when she died.

“Yana is definitely the best-preserved in the world,” NEFU scientists said in a press release.

The residents who found Yana “were in the right place at the right time”, Cherpasov said, per the BBC.

But Yana was apparently different. “Even though the forelimbs have already been eaten, the head is remarkably well preserved,” he explained.

Per the reports, the mammoth is now being studied at Lazarev Mammoth Museum Laboratory, which specializes in studying mammoths and their Ice Age environment and is located at the North-Eastern Federal University (NEFU) in Yakutsk.

Scientists want to learn more about the animal, including when it died.

source: people.com