A frozen mammoth dug up from the Siberian tundra was unveiled in central Japan in a preview of the six-month World Exposition that is expected to draw millions of tourists.
The beast, believed to have lived 18,000 years ago and preserved in a giant refrigerator, is a key exhibit of the Expo, which will open to the public one week later and will largely feature more modern wonders such as robots. Full-bodied mammoths have been found in the ground in the past, but the exhibit at the World Expo is billed as the most successful attempt yet to excavate and display almost the full animal.
The extinct mammoth on display has a nearly intact soil-coloured head covered with muscle tissue and some woolly hair, along with tusks and a front leg. “This is not a mere pavilion, but a laboratory as we will do scientific research here,” Toshio Nakamura, secretary-general of the exposition, told the opening ceremony of the “Mammoth Lab.” “This mammoth has been really well preserved,” Nakamura said, adding that the head has already been monitored through computerised technology. “We would like as many people as possible to take a look at this mammoth and think about the past and the future of human beings.” A group of Russian and Japanese scientists are also hoping to clone mammoths from remains of the animal by using elephant eggs.
Visitors can view the mammoth, which was excavated in 2002, from windows at the lab, where the temperature and humidity are controlled by computers. afp