Liquid body fluids found in the prehistoric colt

(CNN) – Russian researchers found blood and urine in the frozen carcass of a dead colt 42,000 years ago in the Verkhoyansk region of Siberia.

Body fluids from the animal were extracted during an autopsy and tested in hopes of cloning extinct species, according to Semyon Grigoriev, director of the Mammoth Museum at Northeastern Federal University (NEFU) in Yakutsk.

Hunters of mammoth tusks discovered the ancient foal buried in the permafrost of the huge Batagaika crater during the summer of 2018, a day when the temperature had dropped to -67.8 degrees Celsius (-90 degrees Fahrenheit).

Grigoriev informed CNN by e-mail that the foal had died at the age of two weeks, probably drowning in the mud, which then became part of the permafrost.

"An autopsy showed that the carcass of the foal was extremely well preserved, the body even without deformation," he added. "The hair cover also preserved most parts of the carcass, especially to the head and legs."

The preservation of the fur of the animal was extremely rare, said Grigoriev before adding: "Now we can say what color is the wool of the extinct horses of the Pleistocene era."

The discovery of liquid blood and urine is even rarer. Grigoriev said that he only knew of another case of liquid blood finding in a Pleistocene animal, which had lasted from 2.6 million years to about 11,700 years ago. It was in the frozen carcass of an adult mammoth discovered by the Grigoriev team in May 2013 on Little Lyakhovsky Island, off the northeastern coast of Russia.

"As a rule, the blood coagulates or even becomes powdered in the ancient remains of animals of the glaciation, even if the carcass is preserved, seems to be well," says Grigoriev. "This is due to mummification when moisture and other body fluids gradually evaporate over thousands of years, even if the remains are in the permafrost. The remains are better preserved when they are in the ice, as was the case with our mammoth. "

Grigoriev said the NEFU specialists were working with experts from the controversial South Korean research foundation Sooam Biotech to cultivate the foal's cells for cloning, although he is pessimistic about their chances.

Sooam is led by scientist Hwang Woo-suk, who claimed in 2004 that he had managed to clone human embryonic stem cells before admitting that he had falsified his findings.

"I think even the unique preservation [of] the blood is absolutely hopeless for cloning purposes because the main blood cells – red blood cells or erythrocytes – do not have nuclei with DNA, "Grigoriev said. [are] try to find intact cells in the muscle tissue and internal organs that are also very well preserved. "

The old horse will be on display throughout Japan from June to September 2020 as part of the exhibition The Mammoth.

Darya Tarasova from CNN contributed to this report