Over 50,000-year-old mammoth calf 'Yana' discovered in Yakutia

Local residents constructed stretchers from improvised materials to lift the mammoth calf, preserved it in a glacier, and contacted scientists for further study.

 A baby mammoth. (photo credit: Kirill Skorobogatko. Via Shutterstock)
A baby mammoth.
(photo credit: Kirill Skorobogatko. Via Shutterstock)

On Monday, the North-Eastern Federal University (NEFU) in Yakutsk, Russia, announced the discovery of a remarkably well-preserved mammoth calf carcass estimated to be over 50,000 years old. The significant find was made in the Batagayka area of the Verkhoyansk district in Yakutia, a region renowned for its permafrost that often yields prehistoric remains.

Local residents discovered the carcass during the summer months of 2024 in the Batagayka area. They constructed stretchers from improvised materials to lift the mammoth calf, preserved it in a glacier, and contacted scientists for further study. The mammoth has been named "Yana" in honor of the Yana River that flows through the Verkhoyansk district where the discovery was made.

Maxim Cheprasov, the head of the Mammoth Museum at NEFU, announced the discovery alongside NEFU's rector, Anatoly Nikolaev. “At the moment, we can say that this is one of the best mammoth carcass finds ever made in the world,” Cheprasov stated. According to him, the geological age of the find is approximately 50,000 years.

Yana's remains were delivered to Yakutsk in October 2024, where genetic analyses began at the NEFU laboratory. Preliminary genetic studies determined that Yana is a female about one year old, with full-scale tests scheduled for spring 2025. Scientists believe that studying Yana will provide new insights into mammoth ontogeny, adaptive features, and the paleoecological conditions in which these ancient creatures lived.

“The front part thawed first, collapsing under its own weight, while the rear part remained encased in permafrost,” Cheprasov explained. The mammoth calf was divided into two parts: the front and rear halves, while the hind limbs and pelvic region are still encased in permafrost. This exceptional state of preservation offers a unique opportunity for scientists to study the anatomy and genetics of the species.

The calf measures a shoulder height of 120 centimeters and a total length of less than two meters. Cheprasov noted that worldwide, six mammoth carcasses have been found to date, with five of them discovered in Russia. This underscores the importance of the Siberian permafrost regions in uncovering prehistoric life.

Experts at NEFU are optimistic about the potential findings from the upcoming full-scale tests. The data collected from Yana could shed light on the developmental stages of mammoths, their adaptation mechanisms to the harsh climates of the Pleistocene era, and the environmental factors of that period.

In addition to Yana's discovery, there are ongoing international efforts to bring the woolly mammoth back from extinction. In spring 2024, the British company Colossal announced plans to recreate mammoths by 2028. Colossal's biotechnologists have created induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from elephants, which can potentially be transformed into any tissue of mammoths. Experts plan to restore the mammoth genome from found samples and fill in the gaps using DNA from modern Asian elephants, as the genomes of mammoths and Asian elephants coincide by 99.6%. It is planned that the embryos will be implanted into surrogate mothers—female elephants.

The article was written with the assistance of a news analysis system.