‘Well-preserved’ baby mammoth dating back to Ice Age dissected by scientists: photos

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Stunning pictures show a female baby mammoth, dating back over 130,000 years, recently being dissected by Russian scientists.

The mammoth, which has been nicknamed “Yana,” was dissected at the North-Eastern Federal University in Yakutsk, Russia, on March 27. The baby mammoth had been preserved in permafrost until she was dug up in the cold Russian province of Yakutia last year.

Pictures of the necropsy show a team of scientists huddled around the 397-pound animal, which closely resembles a modern baby elephant. The creature’s mouth was open, and her trunk was curled as scientists opened up her skin.

Scientists initially believed that Yana lived 50,000 years ago, but that estimate was updated to over 130,000 years after scientists analyzed the permafrost layer where she was found.

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A live broadcast of scientists performing a necropsy on the 50,000-year-old baby mammoth nicknamed “Yana” is seen on a screen at the North-Eastern Federal University in Yakutsk on March 27, 2025. (STRINGER/AFP via Getty Images)

Maxim Cherpasov, head of the Lazarev Mammoth Museum Laboratory, told Reuters last year that the mammoth was just over a year old when she died. The corpse was already partially eaten by predators when she was discovered.

“As a rule, the part that thaws out first, especially the trunk, is often eaten by modern predators or birds,” Cherpasov told Reuters.

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Scientists perform a necropsy on the 50,000-year-old baby mammoth nicknamed “Yana” at the North-Eastern Federal University in Yakutsk on March 27, 2025. (STRINGER/AFP via Getty Images)

“Here, for example, even though the forelimbs have already been eaten, the head is remarkably well-preserved.”

Though the discovery of a well-preserved mammoth is exceedingly rare, it is not unheard of for other mammoth remains to be discovered. In June 2024, a fisherman found a mammoth bone on the banks of the Raba River in Książnice, near Gdów, Poland.

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Scientists perform a necropsy on the 50,000-year-old baby mammoth nicknamed “Yana” at the North-Eastern Federal University in Yakutsk on March 27, 2025. (STRINGER/AFP via Getty Images)

In August of the same year, a fossil collector discovered a portion of a Columbian mammoth tusk in an embankment in Madison County, Mississippi.

Reuters contributed to this report.