A 39,000-year-old woolly mammoth has gone on display in Yokohama, Japan.
Dubbed “Yuka,” the mammoth died at the age of 10 and was frozen in the Russian snow until it was discovered three years ago. Yuka is the best preserved example of her species, which went extinct across most of its range around 10,000 years ago. Isolated populations survived for centuries thereafter, as late as 4,000 years ago on Wrangel Island. Jack London even wrote a fictional short story about hunting a modern-day mammoth. It’s a fun read and very different than the fiction he’s generally remembered for.
Getting back to science, a Nature World News article on the woolly mammoth says that liquid blood was found in the corpse, bringing up the possibility of cloning. Several attempts have been made to clone the DNA of other mammoth carcasses, with no success.
The exhibition continues until September 16.