Ice, Ice Baby: Perfectly Frozen Mammoth

Sky News ^ | Oct. 5, 2009

[Free ThinkerNY]

A baby woolly mammoth, frozen in soil for 40,000 years in Siberia, was so well preserved that traces of her mother's milk were still in her stomach.

Lyuba, who was thought to be just one month old, was discovered three years ago when nomadic reindeer dug her up.

Scientists believe she died after being sucked into a river bed.

Mud was found in her trunk and throat, suggesting she had suffocated.

The body is preserved enough to provide DNA samples, but the prospect cloning the creature is still a long way off.

Researchers found the animals' hump acted like a furnace, which helped maintain body temperature during colder weather.

This supports the theory that mammoths were born in early spring.

Lyuba is being transported to Chicago to be exhibited in the Field Museum, where she will be the star attraction at a mammoths and mastodons exhibit.

[SunkenCiv]

One adult mammoth that was found essentially intact cooled down quickly enough that the stomach contents were still recognizable.

This baby one is not from the same batch.

[guitarplayer1953]

I thought that it still had it's mother milk in it's belly so to say.