?Finding a ?
A preserved in ice has been excavated in Siberia and
airlifted by helicopter to a cave where it will be kept frozen and studied by
scientists. The scientists, including Northern Arizona University mammoth expert
Larry Agenbroad, recently excavated the . It was found in 1997 by a 9 year old nomadic reindeer herder whose family name was Zharkov. The find was made when he spotted a tusk sticking out of the ground while herding raindeer. By studying it's teeth, scientists determined the 11 foot tall mammoth to have been 47 years old. The lifespan of a is about 60 years.
Encased in an ice walk, the "Zharkov" was flown 200 miles by helicopter from the Taimyr
Peninsula in Siberia to the city of Khatanga. The will be kept frozen there in an underground tunnel.
Besides analyzing the dirt, pollen, an even it's stomach contents, a primary task
is to extract DNA for cloning. It may take months to determine cloning prospects.
Other scientist not involved in the project have said it is unlikely the cloning will
succeed.
The scientist are defrosting it, millimeter by millimeter using a bank of hair dryers. The became extinct some 10,000 years ago, but scientist believe that cross breeding with an
elephant may be possible. If the Zharkov turns out to be
male and it's sperm remains viable after more than a hundred centuries in cold storage, the DNA
samples of the will be sent to a USA laboratory for
possible cloning.
This is the first found that
was totally in tact. The ice preserved the .