A baby woolly mammoth that died more than 30,000 years ago has been unearthed from the frozen ground of Canada’s Yukon — and its body is so remarkably preserved that scientists can still see its hair, skin and tiny toenails.
Miners excavating permafrost in the Klondike gold fields made the extraordinary discovery at Eureka Creek, within Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in Traditional Territory.
Geologists from the Yukon Geological Survey and the University of Calgary recovered the animal, which was apparently frozen during the Ice Age.
Scientists say it is the most complete and best-preserved mammoth ever discovered in North America.
The calf, measuring around 140 centimetres long, is believed to be female and was only about one month old when she died.
But it is the tiny details that make the discovery extraordinary.
Her body still carries its hair and skin, while examination of her feet revealed tiny fingernails and toenails that had not yet fully hardened.
Ice Age paleontologist Grant Zazula, who has studied prehistoric animals for nearly 25 years, described finding a mummified baby animal as unprecedented.
Mummified Ice Age remains are exceptionally rare because they require extraordinary conditions to preserve soft tissues for thousands of years. In this case, the permanently frozen ground appears to have protected the fragile body from decay.
The Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in elders have named the calf Nun cho ga, meaning “big baby animal.”
For scientists, she is far more than an ancient fossil.
She is an extraordinarily intimate snapshot of a baby mammoth that entered the Ice Age world — and never got the chance to grow up.