Well-preserved mammoth skeleton found in Siberian lake

In this handout released by Governor of Yamalo-Nenets region Press Office, people carry a mammoth bone fragment in the Pechevalavato Lake in the Yamalo-Nenets region, Russia, Wednesday, July 22, 2020. Fragments of a mammoth skeleton have been found by local reindeer herders in the lake a few days ago, and scientists hope to retrieve the entire skeleton – a rare find that could help deepen the knowledge about mammoths that have died out around 10,000 years ago.

Russian television stations on Friday showed scientists looking for fragments of the skeleton in the lakeside silt.

Scientists have retrieved more bones and also located more massive fragments protruding from the silt. They said it would take significant time and special equipment to recover the rest of the skeleton — if it had all survived in position.

Yevgeniya Khozyainova of the Shemanovsky Institute in Salekhard said in televised remarks that finding the complete skeleton of a mammoth is relatively rare. Such finds allow scientists to deepen their understanding of mammoths.

Several well-preserved frozen carcasses of mammoths have been found in the permafrost of northern Siberia.

Siberia is undergoing a heatwave and the U.N. weather agency warned Friday that average temperatures were 10 degrees Celsius (18 Fahrenheit) above average last month.