A woolly mammoth with blood still present in its veins could provide biologists with the ability to clone the animals, which went extinct near the end of the last major ice age.
De-extinction could be carried out by researchers on a number of species that no longer roam the Earth. The woolly mammoth is one of the species researchers have considered bringing back to life, along with the dodo bird and the carrier pigeon.
Russian paleontologists found the frozen corpse of a woolly mammoth, nearly perfectly preserved, on an island off the coast of Siberia, in May 2013.
"[T]he search of living cells is the most important and difficult step of cloning. If it succeeds, then the cloning procedure itself will be held in the Republic of Korea, where experts of Sooam Foundation have extensive experience in the cloning of animals, especially dogs," the North-Eastern Federal University in Yakutsk reported.
The frozen corpse was revealed to be that of a female animal, roughly 60 years old. She was the oldest woolly mammoth yet unearthed with flesh intact. Biologists believe the animal lived somewhere between 10,000 and 15,000 years ago. The ancient animal likely died in water, which quickly froze over, preserving the stomach and lower half of the body. Portions of the back of the animal had been picked apart by predators before the body froze.
"When we broke the ice beneath her stomach, the blood flowed out from there, it was very dark. This is the most astonishing case in my entire life. How was it possible for it to remain in liquid form? And the muscle tissue is also red, the colour of fresh meat," Semyon Grigoryev of Northeastern Federal University and leader of the expedition that found the mammoth, told reporters.
Woolly mammoths were one species of mammoth, relative to modern elephants. They stood around 10 feet tall at the shoulder, roughly the same size as a modern African elephant.
Woolly mammoths are becoming easier to find in Siberia, as global warming thaws once-frozen ground, exposing the ancient remains.
How to Clone a Woolly Mammoth will premiere on the Smithsonian Channel on November 29. The documentary will detail the possibility of bringing back the ancient species, including the ethical issues involved in the technology.
"It's all very much up in the air still. As usual, the pace at which science can progress is at odds with the pace at which a TV documentary is made," Tori Herridge, from the Natural History Museum in London, said.
The ice age corpse is currently housed in a undisclosed location, in order to prevent any vandals or thieves from damaging the remains.
