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Liquid blood in the Ice Age foal. Image: Northeastern Federal University
Semyon Grigoryev, head of the Mammoth Museum in Yakutsk, said today: "The autopsy shows beautifully preserved internal organs.
"Liquid blood samples were taken from the heart vessels. They were kept in liquid state for 42,000 years thanks to favorable landfill conditions and permafrost.
"Muscle tissue has retained its natural reddish color.
"We can now claim that it is the best preserved ice age animal ever found in the world."
In an interview with TASS, Dr. Grigoryev revealed that the foal was in exceptional condition with no visible damage.
"This is extremely rare for paleontological discoveries because some of them are incomplete, fragmented, with severe body deformities or heavily mummified," said the expert.
"The foal's hair is intact on his head, legs and part of his body.
'His tail and mane are black, the rest of the foal's body is laurel-shaped.
"To have preserved hair is another scientific sensation since all the previous horses have been found without hair."
The 42,000 year old colt. Photos: Northeastern Federal University
This is the second month of intense work by the Yakutian university team and scientists from South Korea's Sooam Biotech Foundation for research.
"Our studies showed that at the time of death, the foal was between one and two weeks old. It has just been born, "said the scientist.
"As in previous cases of really well preserved remains of prehistoric animals, the cause of death was drowned in the mud that froze and turned into permafrost.
"A large amount of mud and silt that the foal swallowed in the last few seconds of his life were found in his gastrointestinal tract."
Video of the interior of the Batagai depression where the colt was found and foal at the Yakutsk lab
Scientists have already indicated that they are "confident of their success" in extracting cells from this colt in order to clone his species – the extinct breed of Lenskaya – as previously reported by the Siberian Times.
The work is so advanced that the team would have chosen a mother for the historical role of giving birth to the species back.
Michil Yakovlev, editor of institutional media at the university, said: "Let's hope the world will soon meet the clone of the former colt who lived 42,000 years ago."
The colt was found in the Batagai depression in Yakutia.
An attempt to revive the species would pave the way for a similar effort to revive the giant woolly mammoth.
The same scientists are working on both projects.
The international team of scientists working in the laboratory of the Northeast Federal University, the colt held by Semyon Grigoryev after his discovery, the Batagai depression. Images: NEFU, Siberian Time
This unique foal will become one of the highlights of the exhibition The Mammoth in Japan, starting in June this year and ending in September 2020.
"More than 30 exhibitions in Yakutia will be going to the exhibition," said Dr. Grigoryev.
"For the first time, we will show the only frozen trunk of woolly mammoth in the world, as well as the carcass of the buffalo Yukagir, old partridge and horse Batagai."
Modern Yakut horses, Malolyajovsky mammoth found in 2013. Photos: The Siberian Times, NEFU
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