Scientists poke frozen mammoth, liquid blood squirts out

ORIGINAL: Wired

by IAN STEADMAN

29 MAY 13 

The mammoth's blood was liquidSemyon Grigoriev/Northeastern Federal University

The frozen remains of a mammoth have been discovered on an island north of Siberia -- with blood that is still liquid.

The 10,000-year-old beast was found on one of the Lyakhovsky Islands in the Novosibirsk archipelago off the northern coast of Siberia. Researchers from the Northeastern Federal University in Yakutsk poked the remains with an ice pick, and, incredibly, blood flowed out.

Semyon Grigoriev, chairman of the university's Museum of Mammoths and head of the expedition, said: "The fragments of muscle tissues, which we've found out of the body, have a natural red colour of fresh meat. The reason for such preservation is that the lower part of the body was underlying (sic) in pure ice, and the upper part was found in the middle of tundra. We found a trunk separately from the body, which is the worst-preserved part."

The temperature was ten degrees celsius below zero when the mammoth was found, so the discovery of liquid blood was a shock. "It can be assumed that the blood of mammoths had some cryo-protective properties," Grigoriev said. "The blood is very dark, it was found in ice cavities below the belly and when we broke these cavities with a pick, the blood came running out."

Analysis of the mammoth's teeth and bones showed it to be between 50 and 60 years old when it died. Its partially-consumed state -- with her trunk found separately nearby -- left the researchers believing she may have fallen through ice while fleeing predators.

The Northeastern team plans to take an international group of scientists to study the mammoth during the summer, in July and August, rather than risking damaging the specimen by excavating it and taking it to the nearest city by helicopter.

Grigoriev has been involved in searching for mammoth remains for several years, and the discovery of liquid mammoth blood is, like previous discoveries, likely to renew discussion about the possibility of cloning mammoths. In September 2012 reports came in that remains with "living" cells had been found by Grigoriev and his team elsewhere in Siberia, but the excitement soon dissipated when it became clear that a translation error had made the discovery seem more impressive than it was.

Also, while Northeastern University did sign a prominent agreement with South Korea's Sooam Biotech Research Foundation in 2011 to clone a mammoth using recovered mammoth bone marrow, there has been little news from the programme since. Many observers have been sceptical it can achieve its aims, especially as it's led by geneticist Hwang Woo-Suk -- the man who was exposed for faking research in 2006 when he claimed to have cloned human stem cells.

This mammoth is one of several found in recent months -- Wired.co.uk reported on another that was found in the Siberian tundra by a small boy last November when he was out walking his dog.

Edited by OLIVIA SOLON