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Exceptionally preserved woolly mammoth goes on view

A 39,000 year old, well-preserved woolly mammoth will be on view to the public from July 13th to September 16th at an exhibition hall in Yokohama, Japan.The specimen, a baby female whom scientists nicknamed "Yuka," was found in May on the New Siberian Islands. Yuka had been trapped in the ice for centuries, but the frozen conditions kept Yuka's fur and muscle tissue intact.Parts of her torso and l
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A 39,000 year old, well-preserved woolly mammoth will be on view to the public from July 13th to September 16th at an exhibition hall in Yokohama, Japan.

The specimen, a baby female whom scientists nicknamed "Yuka," was found in May on the New Siberian Islands. Yuka had been trapped in the ice for centuries, but the frozen conditions kept Yuka's fur and muscle tissue intact.

Parts of her torso and legs, however, had been partially consumed by prehistoric predators.

Paleontologists previously discovered examples of woolly mammoths, but many, including one nicknamed Jenya, found last year also in Siberia, were more decomposed due to insufficiently cold climates.

Semyon Grigoriev, chairman of the Museum of Mammoths of the Institute of Applied Ecology of the North at the North Eastern Federal University, called Yuka "the best-preserved mammoth in the history of paleontology."

Visitors to the exhibition hall in Japan can see Yuka's intact snout, amber fur, and hardy hooves  —not bad for a species that roamed the earth over 10,000 years ago.

In addition, there's a chance that the ice age may meet the modern age: unlike with other woolly mammoth specimens, researchers were able to extract blood from the creature, "leading to speculation that scientists might try to clone the extinct animal."