Scientists in Siberia are studying the remarkably well-preserved remains of a juvenile mammoth, discovered in thawing permafrost after more than 50,000 years. Believed to be the best-preserved mammoth carcass ever found, the find offers a unique opportunity to learn more about the lives of prehistoric herbivores, according to National Geographic. The mammoth, resembling a small elephant with a trunk, was unearthed in the Batagaika crater, a vast 80-meter (260-foot) deep depression that is expanding due to climate change. Named Yana, after the river basin where it was found, the mammoth is thought to have been about a year old at the time of her death. Maxim Cherpasov, head of the Lazarev Mammoth Museum Laboratory in Yakutsk, described the preservation of its head and trunk as extraordinary. “Typically, predators or birds consume these parts as soon as they thaw,” he explained, highlighting the rarity of such a well-preserved specimen.
Thaw slumps are becoming a common sight in Siberia, which is losing its permafrost faster than any other place on Earth. Natural forces, such as wildfires, deforestation, and air warming much faster than global averages, combine to melt the ancient frozen soil. The thawed permafrost contains carbon locked up for millennia and releases it into the atmosphere, adding to global warming. It also reveals fossils of mammoths, squirrels, and other Pleistocene creatures.
Siberia’s vast northeastern region, known as Sakha or Yakutia, used to be a land of lush meadow steppes that supported herds of woolly mammoths and other large grazers. Occasionally, as these herbivores and carnivores died, their remains accumulated on the ground, covered by a layer of frozen soil called permafrost. This frozen soil slowed the decomposition process, and over time, windblown silt buried the remains in layers of sediment. Over the last few decades, melting polar ice caps have exposed this frozen ground. As it thaws, the sediment is sometimes revealed in spectacular ways.
For example 2018, scientists in the same region unearthed the perfectly preserved skeleton of a baby Lena horse cub that was nearly intact down to its whiskers. The incredibly well-preserved creature also yielded the oldest known sample of liquid blood.
But the discovery of this mammoth in its pristine state indicates how quickly the land can turn against humans, too. As more permafrost is thawed, the ice-age ecosystem will continue to break apart and release even more carbon into the atmosphere. This is why we must keep global temperatures below 2°C, which is the goal of the Paris Agreement on climate change, and pursue a more sustainable future. This means halting the growth of wildfires, cutting back on deforestation, and reducing emissions from burning fossil fuels. It also means ensuring communities have access to enough clean water and that forests are properly managed.