Boy Finds Woolly Mammoth Preserved in Ice

An 11-year-old Russian boy stumbled upon a big discovery in the frozen mud. He was the first to spot a preserved woolly mammoth. He told his parents he saw some frozen limbs sticking out of the mud and his parent’s contacted scientists. Shortly after, a dig began.

Historic find

The ice kept the woolly mammoth in excellent shape; it’s said to have layers of fat, tissue and even fur still in tact. According to ABC News, scientists haven’t seen anything like this in more than one hundred years. (Back in 1901 another mammoth was pulled from the frozen tundra in Russia; it was also well preserved.)

Prof. Alexei Tikhonov of the Zoology Institute in St. Petersburg announced the find and predicted the animal was about 15 years old when it died more than 30,000 years ago. The massive animal is six feet in height and weighs about a thousand pounds.

“He was pretty small for his age,” Tikhonov told The Associated Press.

It wasn’t his size that led to his death, Tikhonov said. It was the loss of a tusk. Tikhonov believes humans could have caused the broken tusk. Without the tusk, the animal wasn’t able to fight off other animals or humans, according to NBC News.

Scientist were able to dig the woolly mammoth out of the ice and now it’s on its way to a research center for further analysis and testing.

More on woolly mammoths

These elephant-like creatures were vegetarians. They ate all kinds of prairie grass and birch trees. During the winter, they used their tusks as snowplows to clear areas to eat.

Extinction was caused by a combination of climate change and humans hunting them.

The anatomy of a woolly mammoth is well documented, thanks to well preserved carcasses found trapped in ice, just like the most recent find.