As reported on The Verge.
By Jacob Kastrenakes
As global warming thaws the ground in Russia, researchers have been making some amazing finds. Now, Russian researchers claim to have made what could be the most incredible discovery of all: the preserved blood and meat of a woolly mammoth. “When we broke the ice beneath [the mammoth’s] stomach, the blood flowed out from there,” expedition head Semyon Grigoriev told the AFP. As unlikely as the discovery sounds, the researchers intend to have specialists from several other countries, including the United States, take a look at the remains for confirmation and study sometime soon.
THE TEAM HOPES TO CLONE A MAMMOTH
The Russian team’s ultimate aim is to clone a mammoth, a longtime goal of Grigoriev’s. While the team previously found skin and bone, the samples contained no living cells. If what the team now discovered turns out to be blood with living cells in it, the find could be a major breakthrough in the team’s mission. And even if the liquid doesn’t have living cells, the discovery of preserved mammoth blood would still be a remarkable find for the team.
Grigoriev told the AFP that the female mammoth died at around age 60, about 10,000 to 15,000 years ago. Part of the animal became covered by a frozen pool of water, allowing its tissue to remain better preserved than any other mammoth that they’ve found. The team also believes that mammoth blood may contain anti-freeze properties, according to the Siberian Times, which has additional graphic photos of the animal’s carcass and blood.