Science
Related: About this forumMammoth find: Preserved Ice Age giant found with flowing blood in Siberia
Russian scientists discovered a fully-grown female mammoth with blood and well-preserved muscle tissue trapped in ice in Siberia. The findings come amid debates on whether the extinct species should be resurrected using DNA.
Scientists say they have managed to find mammoth blood during the excavation of a grown female animal on the Lyakhovsky Islands, the southernmost group of the New Siberian Islands in the Arctic seas of northeastern Russia.
The dark blood was found in ice cavities below the belly of the animal. When researchers broke the cavities with a poll pick, the blood came flowing out. The fact surprised them because the temperature was 10C below zero.
"It can be assumed that the blood of mammoths had some cryo-protective properties, said Semyon Grigoriev, head of the Museum of Mammoths of the Institute of Applied Ecology of the North at the North Eastern Federal University as cited by Interfax news agency.
The blood was placed in a test tube and a bacteriological analysis of the sample is expected soon.
The muscle tissue of the animal was also well-preserved and had a natural red color of fresh meat, added the scientist. Such preservation can be explained by the fact that the lower part of the mammoths body was trapped in pure ice, while the upper part was discovered in the middle of the tundra. The trunk was found separately from the carcass.
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http://rt.com/news/mammoth-blood-ice-siberia-908/
Tien1985
(920 posts)Unexpected, to say the least.
Democracyinkind
(4,015 posts)That is not "flowing" blood. It's simply blood.
Nevertheless. Interesting. Spielbergesque, almost, I should say.
Thor_MN
(11,843 posts)The connotation of circulating blood makes it a bit off, but headlines are always ampped up these days.
eShirl
(18,502 posts)Democracyinkind
(4,015 posts)That, at least, makes sense.
Thank you.
dipsydoodle
(42,239 posts)Cloning Woolly Mammoths: Its the Ecology, Stupid. http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/2013/03/18/cloning-woolly-mammoths-its-the-ecology-stupid/
jakeXT
(10,575 posts)Professor Alice Roberts reveals the natural history of the most famous of Ice Age animals - the woolly mammoth. Mammoths have transfixed humans since the depths of the last Ice Age, when their herds roamed across what is now Europe and Asia. Although these curious members of the elephant family have now been extinct for thousands of years, scientists can now paint an incredibly detailed picture of their lives thanks to whole carcasses that have been beautifully preserved in the Siberian permafrost. Alice meets the scientists who are using the latest genetic, chemical and molecular tests to reveal the adaptations that allowed mammoths to evolve from their origins in the tropics, to surviving the extremes of Siberia. And in a dramatic end to the film, she helps unveil a brand new woolly mammoth carcass that may shed new light on our own ancestors' role in their extinction.
dipsydoodle
(42,239 posts)Those mammoths spread between what is now Alaska , when it was joined to Asia , right across to Europe !
Final part of three parts is next Sunday night here in the UK.
itsrobert
(14,157 posts)Mammoth ribs, burgers, and steaks.