Russian scientists claim that they have taken the most detailed pictures ever of the insides of a prehistoric animal: specifically a baby woolly mammoth found perfectly preserved in the frigid Russian Arctic.  The cold and the skin of the baby protected it from decay caused by modern microbes, bacteria, and pathogens.

The Preserved Woolly Mammoth

It was studied using computer tomography, which is much like an MRI.  Researchers could even see detailed images of the internal organs of the mammoth, a creature which has been extinct ever since the Ice Age.  The baby has been dated to have lived around 37,000 years ago.  They also managed to see what is believed to be silt in the animal’s airways, leading to the hypothesis that the COD was drowning.

The remains are so well intact, that scientists may have a genetic map of the mammoth in the near future.  Dr. Tikhonov, the project leader, does not believe, however, that a Jurassic Park scenario will play out.