The tragic tale of Lyuba: Clogged windpipe reveals baby mammoth choked to death in a mud hole 42,000 years ago
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On the grassy plains of Siberia 42,000 years ago, a baby woolly mammoth fell into a sticky mud hole and choked to death, leaving her mother to grieve for her.
Now this little mammoth is the star attraction of the Natural History Museum's Ice Age exhibition, which opens this Friday.
Lyuba was plucked from the Siberian permafrost in 2007 where she was entombed and now scientists have revealed the cause of her death, as well as her final meal.
Fascinating: Lyuba, the baby mammoth (pictured) is the star attraction of the Natural History Museum's Ice Age exhibition, which opens this Friday. Experts thinks she fell into a sticky mud hole and choked to death, leaving her mother to grieve for her, 42,000 years ago
HOW DID LYUBA DIE?
Scientists believe that Lyuba fell into a mud hole beside an ancient river bank.
The baby mammoth's trunk, mouth, oesophagus and trachea are all clogged with sediment, suggesting she choked to death or was asphyxiated.
Pip Brewer, curator of fossils, mammals, at the museum told MailOnline that because Lyuba was so small, she would not have had the strength to pull herself out of the mud hole.
She thinks that just as modern elephants grieve for dead members of their herd, mammoths did the same thing.
She is the world's most complete mammoth and at just 35 days old at her time of death, measures 33inches (85cm) tall and 51 inches (130cm) long – a little larger than a dog.
Lyuba was discovered in Siberia by reindeer herder Yuri Khudi and his sons who were searching for wood along the Yuribei River, which was Lyuba's old stomping ground.
She is named after Yuri's wife and her name means love in Russian.
Scientists believe that Lyuba fell into a mud hole beside an ancient river bank.
The baby mammoth's trunk, mouth, oesophagus and trachea are all clogged with sediment, suggesting she choked to death or was asphyxiated.
A desperate death: Scientists believe that Lyuba (pictured) fell into a mud hole beside an ancient river bank and choked to death. The baby mammoth's trunk, mouth, oesophagus and trachea were all clogged with sediment, suggesting she choked to death or was asphyxiated
At last! The world's most complete mammoth will go on show at London's Natural History Museum at the end of this week. Here, the ancient animal is in her custom case being transported to the museum
It's as if she is sleeping: The baby mammoth (pictured) was plucked from the Siberian permafrost where she has hidden for 42,000 years
X-Rays and CT scans revealed that the little mammoth (pictured left) suffered no broken bones before her death and a hump on her neck containing brown fat shows she was well nourished and able to keep warm. Her body was covered in thick dark brown fur but only a tuft (pictured right) or two remain
LYUBA'S FINAL MEAL
Lyuba was healthy when she died and scientists discovered remnants of her mother's milk still inside her stomach as well as algae from lake water.
Traces of pollen from trees and plants were also found in her stomach, despite the fact that Lyuba was too young to eat solids.
Experts believe that just like modern elephants, mother mammoths fed their offspring dung – which contained pollen – in order to introduce bacteria to help them digest plants.
Professor Adrian Lister, a mammoth researcher at the Natural History Museum, said: 'CT scans show her upper respiratory tract is packed with mud, which corresponds to our model of her sinking into soft mud.'
Pip Brewer, curator of fossils, mammals, at the museum told MailOnline that because Lyuba was so small, she would not have had the strength to pull herself out of the mud hole. And her fate befell other small mammoths too.
'We already know of a couple of examples of other mammals that dies this way. They didn't have the bodyweight to extract themselves from the mud in the summer months,' she said.
Just as modern elephants grieve for dead members of their herd, mammoths are thought to have done the same thing. 'I entirely expect that the mammoths grieved,' Ms Brewer said.
There is fossil evidence that mammoths shared many behaviours with modern elephants, such as matriarchs leading a herd of juveniles and adults encircling babies when the herd was under threat.
She explained that a depression in Lyuba's skull shows her last desperate attempts to breathe but said that as her story is being told today, her last struggle is not lost forever.
Scientists examined Lyuba's baby teeth to discover that she spent 22 months in the womb ¿ the same amount of time as a modern elephant. A 'growth line' (labelled) in the dentine shows she was born in spring and was just 35 days old when she die
Members of the public will be able to see Lyuba's pristinely preserved body when it forms the centrepiece of an exhibition called Mammoths: Ice Age Giant, which opens on 23 May. It will run until 7 September. A close-up of her eye area is pictured
The remains of the mammoth were found by reindeer Yuri Khudi and his sons, left, while they were gathering firewood. The body was then sent to the Shemanovsky Musuem, right, in Russia to be examined (right)
Lyuba was otherwise healthy when she died and scientists discovered remnants of her mother's milk still inside her stomach.
She was too young to eat solids, but algae from lake water and traces of pollen from trees and plants were also found in her stomach. Experts believe that just like modern elephants, mother mammoths fed their offspring dung – which contained pollen – in order to introduce bacteria to help them digest plants. So Lyuba's last meals consisted of milk and dung.
X-Rays and CT scans revealed that the little mammoth suffered no broken bones before her death and a hump on her neck containing brown fat shows she was well nourished and able to keep warm.
Her body was covered in thick dark brown fur but much has been lost while she was entombed in the ice.
Scientists examined Lyuba's baby teeth to discover that she spent 22 months in the womb – the same amount of time as a modern elephant.
A 'growth line' in the dentine shows she was born in spring and was just 35 days old when she died.
Lyuba's body was so well preserved because she was buried quickly after her death in fine sediment that sealed her off from oxygen.
The exhibition is the first opportunity for people to see the baby mammoth (pictured) in Europe and it will also include realistic life-sized models and skeletons of mammoths and their relatives. Real tusks and teeth from the woolly giants will also go on show
The exhibition, called Mammoths: Ice Age Giant, opens on 23 May and runs until 7 September. There are many lifesize models of Ice Age creatures, including the giant Colombian mammoth (pictured left and right)
Lyuba the baby mammoth (pictured) who is housed in a glass case in the exhibition, measures 33inches (85cm) tall and 51 inches (130cm) long - a little larger than a dog
Professor Lister said that ancient humans used mammoths for much more than food and there is a 'lot of evidence of interaction'. Tusks were used for carving into spearheads, bone was used in the construction of huts in central Europe and fur for warmth. Here, a Colombian mammoth is pictured alongside a tiger
WHY IS HER BODY SO PRISTINE?
Lyuba's body was so well preserved because she was buried quickly after her death in fine sediment that sealed her off from oxygen.
Because of her riverbed location, her body was also pickled by acids formed by bacteria that entered her body soon after death, which was then frozen in permafrost.
Her DNA is well preserved and there are very few samples of this type of mammoth.
The little mammoth would have had a thick coat of brown fur. Her fur dropped out during her 42,000 years trapped in ice and the few tufts that remain appear ginger as a result of the preservation process.
Because of her riverbed location, her body was also pickled by acids formed by bacteria that entered her body soon after death, which was then frozen in permafrost.
Her DNA is well preserved and there are very few samples of this type of mammoth.
Palaeontologists are unsure of the mortality rate among baby woolly mammoths but Ms Brewer said that there was a 'high chance' that Lyuba would have been hunted had she survived her encounter with the mud hole.
'Even with cooperative hunting [by ancient man], bringing down a fully-grown mammoth was formidable and I can't imagine it happening too often.'
She thinks that humans picked on the easy targets – including baby mammoths – and that other predators such as lions and hyenas did the same.
Professor Lister said that ancient humans used mammoths for much more than food and there is a 'lot of evidence of interaction' between them.
'Tusks were used for carving into spearheads, bone was used in the construction of huts in central Europe and fur for warmth.'
The spread of the woolly mammoth corresponds with the spread of humans. Mammoths moved out of Africa three million years ago and humans two million years ago. Both animal and humans spread across Eurasia before moving across the Bering Strait, but 'people were not copying the mammoths'.
The Natural History Musuem's exhibition, Mammoths: Ice Age Giant, opens on 23 May and runs until 7 September.
It is the first opportunity for people to see the baby mammoth in Europe and it will also include realistic life-sized models and skeletons of mammoths and their relatives. Real tusks and teeth from the woolly giants will also go on show along with lots of interactive exhibits.
Lyuba's body was preserved when it sank into mud which later froze. It has been buried for 40,000 years in a vacuum, which has meant that oxygen has not decomposed the remains
The little mammoth was discovered near the Yuribei River (marked) in Siberia, Russia in May 2007
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The discovery by Lyuba Yuri Khudi and his sons, one of whom is pictured with the mammoth, was a complete accident
The discovery in 2007 caused excitement in the scientific community because of Lyuba's completeness. Here, scientists make observations in Siberia where the body was found
COULD WE ONE DAY CLONE A MAMMOTH?
Scientists said in March that they have taken a step towards cloning the extinct woolly mammoth and there is a 'high chance' it will happen.
Experts expect to extract 'high quality DNA' from a 43,000 year old carcass found in Siberia.
Woolly mammoths finally died out in eastern Siberia around 4,000 years ago.
Radik Khayrullin, vice president of the Russian Association of Medical Anthropologists, said: 'The data we are about to receive will give us a high chance to clone the mammoth.'
But he called for responsibility in bringing the ancient beast back to life, urging that competing teams seeking to win a race to clone the mammoth, not to play God for the sake of it.
'We must have a reason to do this, as it is one thing to clone it for scientific purpose and another to clone for the sake of curiosity,' he said.
A cloning attempt would involve a female elephant – the closest living relative of the mammoth - acting as a surrogate mother.
Experts at the Natural History Museum today said scientists are not currently in a position to clone a mammoth.
They have decoded 70 per cent of the animal's genome, but crucial information is still needed.
Professor Lister said: 'We don't have the technology...and the DNA we can recover is very fragmented.'
Ms Brewer told MailOnline that cloning a mammoth would be a 'glory test' and is 'dubious' that it should happen because of ethical concerns.
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