Photo: The remains of a mammoth and those who found them.
The little mammoth, discovered by archaeologists in Yakutia, was killed by anthrax about 32 thousand years ago. This is the conclusion reached by Russian scientists who studied the remains of an ancient animal
"The Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute reports that anthrax spores have been identified in the samples of paleontological material from the carcass of a mammoth found in the floodplain of the Khroma River in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia)", - said on Thursday the Chief State Sanitary Doctor of Russia Gennady Onishchenko.
He stressed that the researchers conducted laboratory tests on mice and guinea pigs, having tested samples of the disease isolated from the remains of a mammoth, and came to the conclusion that this particular strain is fatal in one hundred percent of cases, RIA Novosti reports.
“The baby mammoth died about 32 thousand years ago and it was from anthrax,” Onishchenko said, adding that none of the specialists who excavated the animal, as well as laboratory studies of the bacterium, contracted the dangerous virus during the work. In addition, the doctor recalled that anthrax is a deadly disease for humans.
About the mammoth
The remains of an approximately two-year-old mammoth, which partially protruded directly from the permafrost in the lower reaches of the Khroma River, were discovered at the end of May last year by one of the employees of the pension fund department. Igor Lebedev informed the scientists of the Mammoth Museum of the Institute of Applied Ecology of the North about the find, who transported the valuable find to Yakutsk.
The mammoth has preserved its head, front and hind legs, and some internal organs. But the carcass is partially eaten. Preservation - about 70%.
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According to Petr Lazarev, Doctor of Biological Sciences, head of the IPES Mammoth Museum, the case is unique. “This is the oldest of the previously discovered mammoths, so it is very interesting to study its structure, development, organs. The Abyisky mammoth, found in 1990 on the right bank of the Indigirka, 45 kilometers from the village of Belaya Gora, was two months old, the Oymyakonsky (2004) from the right bank of the Olchan, 80 kilometers from the village of Ust-Nera - a year, Lazarev said last year …