By Tim Binnall
Scientists in Siberia have recovered the remains of a woolly mammoth which had been so well-preserved that there was still soft tissue attached to its bones. The remarkable find was reportedly made late last month in the village of Seyakha by the Tadibe family, who spotted the ancient creature's skeleton in the silt of a lake. To their credit, they promptly alerted scientists from Russia's Centre of Arctic Research, which quickly dispatched a team to investigate.
Upon arriving on the scene, experts spent five days arduously unearthing the skeleton of the creature which they marveled was in tremendous condition considering that it perished around 10,000 years ago. "We have one front and one hind foot well-preserved, with tendons, soft tissues and pieces of skin," explained Evgenia Khozyainova of the Shemanovsky Museum which assisted in the excavation of the creature, "also we have sacrum with adjacent vertebrae, including the tail preserved with tendons and a big piece of skin."
Scientists who have examined the bones believed that they belonged to a 15-to-20-year old mammoth that stood approximately ten feet tall. With no sign of injury to the creature, it was impossible to discern what may have caused its demise, though researchers theorized that perhaps it had plummeted to its death by falling into a large land crack. Although it has yet to be made official, the name given to the mighty mammoth will likely be Tadibe in honor of the family who first found it and dutifully reported it to the authorities.