0:00:03 > 0:00:08Imagine an elephant, but with tusks at least twice the size
0:00:08 > 0:00:11of those borne by an elephant living today.
0:00:17 > 0:00:22Imagine an elephant, but covered in a thick shaggy coat of hair,
0:00:22 > 0:00:25some of those hairs over a metre in length.
0:00:31 > 0:00:35Imagine an elephant which lived not in the warmth of the tropics,
0:00:35 > 0:00:38but in the ice and snow of the north.
0:00:41 > 0:00:43The woolly mammoth.
0:00:47 > 0:00:51These majestic titans ruled Europe and Asia
0:00:51 > 0:00:55long before our own ancestors fell under their spell.
0:00:57 > 0:01:03Extinct for thousands of years, they are iconic, yet mysterious.
0:01:04 > 0:01:10Climate change means that the frozen north is melting faster than ever before.
0:01:10 > 0:01:14Prehistoric carcasses are emerging and, from them,
0:01:14 > 0:01:18we can unlock the secrets of these long-lost beasts.
0:01:20 > 0:01:22Using the latest technology,
0:01:22 > 0:01:28we can now answer questions about the mammoth which have long-puzzled scientists.
0:01:28 > 0:01:30This is, in essence, virtual time travel.
0:01:30 > 0:01:34That's starting to sound a little bit like Jurassic Park!
0:01:34 > 0:01:38We're able to trace their evolution, revealing their adaptations
0:01:38 > 0:01:40to one of the harshest places on the planet.
0:01:41 > 0:01:43This is amazing!
0:01:43 > 0:01:46And with every new find, we take a step closer
0:01:46 > 0:01:49to answering the biggest question of all -
0:01:49 > 0:01:54why did these magnificent animals suddenly go extinct?
0:01:54 > 0:01:57- I want to show you. - Oh, fantastic. That's brilliant. - I want to share with you.
0:02:20 > 0:02:22Siberia.
0:02:25 > 0:02:30Here, the temperature hovers around minus 40 for months on end.
0:02:34 > 0:02:36Few animals can survive here.
0:02:39 > 0:02:43A hundred thousand years ago, it was a different story.
0:02:43 > 0:02:46THUNDER RUMBLES
0:02:49 > 0:02:56This giant swathe of Eurasia was home to vast herds of woolly mammoths.
0:02:58 > 0:03:01Perfectly adapted to the extremes of the Arctic,
0:03:01 > 0:03:05a tiny population survived on a remote island
0:03:05 > 0:03:08until about 4,000 years ago.
0:03:08 > 0:03:10But, on mainland Siberia,
0:03:10 > 0:03:14they mysteriously died out at the end of the last Ice Age.
0:03:16 > 0:03:19But we're left with a treasure trove of their remains,
0:03:19 > 0:03:23locked in Siberia's layer of frozen ground...
0:03:24 > 0:03:26..the permafrost.
0:03:31 > 0:03:34As global warming raises the earth's temperature,
0:03:34 > 0:03:38melting the permafrost faster than ever,
0:03:38 > 0:03:41the secrets of the mammoth are finally emerging.
0:03:45 > 0:03:48After centuries of collecting their remains,
0:03:48 > 0:03:52we can paint a detailed picture of these long-lost beasts
0:03:52 > 0:03:56far better than we can for any other extinct species.
0:03:57 > 0:04:00We know that they lived for up to 60 years
0:04:00 > 0:04:03and were perfectly built for life in the freezer.
0:04:06 > 0:04:10But many of their adaptations have remained secret, until now.
0:04:13 > 0:04:17And there's one big question, which remains unanswered.
0:04:17 > 0:04:19What killed them off?
0:04:21 > 0:04:25This is one of the most famous mammoth-finds of recent years.
0:04:25 > 0:04:29She's called Lyuba, and she's a little baby mammoth,
0:04:29 > 0:04:30probably just a month old.
0:04:30 > 0:04:36She was found in 2007 and she is amazingly well preserved,
0:04:36 > 0:04:39so that we have her skin, her soft tissues
0:04:39 > 0:04:41and we even have the contents of her gut.
0:04:43 > 0:04:48Lyuba has been radio carbon dated to 37,000 years old.
0:04:48 > 0:04:51Found in the far northwest of Siberia,
0:04:51 > 0:04:56she's considered to be the best-preserved mammoth ever discovered.
0:05:00 > 0:05:04It's wonderful to get so close to this little baby mammoth
0:05:04 > 0:05:08and see how beautifully preserved she is. You can see the texture of the skin.
0:05:08 > 0:05:11You can see individual hair follicles there,
0:05:11 > 0:05:14and there's even some fur preserved, some little patches of it.
0:05:14 > 0:05:19And then on the surface of the skin as well, there are these peculiar blue discs,
0:05:19 > 0:05:25which are part of a fungal infestation that happened after she died,
0:05:25 > 0:05:28part of the burial environment that she was in.
0:05:28 > 0:05:30And she's lost her tail,
0:05:30 > 0:05:33that's about the only bit of her that isn't there.
0:05:39 > 0:05:42It's thought that Lyuba died in a bog,
0:05:42 > 0:05:47where she was first pickled by natural chemicals, and then quickly frozen.
0:05:52 > 0:05:55Large specimens, like fully-grown mammoths,
0:05:55 > 0:05:58usually deteriorate before this occurs.
0:05:59 > 0:06:04In fact, any type of frozen carcass is incredibly rare.
0:06:04 > 0:06:09Lyuba is one of a mere handful of frozen specimens ever discovered.
0:06:12 > 0:06:16Isn't it peculiar to think that humans saw these alive.
0:06:16 > 0:06:19I think that's quite a strange thought,
0:06:19 > 0:06:23to know that there were people living here in Siberia
0:06:23 > 0:06:29during the peak of the last Ice Age, and these animals would have been in their environment.
0:06:29 > 0:06:31They would have been very familiar to them,
0:06:31 > 0:06:36just as people living in Africa and southern Asia share their landscape with elephants.
0:06:43 > 0:06:52Our relationship with mammoths dates back to the early days of modern humans in Europe.
0:06:52 > 0:06:55Their herds clearly inspired cave art.
0:06:57 > 0:07:02We've been transfixed by their majesty for thousands of years.
0:07:03 > 0:07:08But, once extinct, mammoths became the source of myth and legend.
0:07:10 > 0:07:16Their huge bones were thought by some to belong to a long-lost race of giants.
0:07:19 > 0:07:24Others believed they belonged to a bizarre subterranean mole-like creature
0:07:24 > 0:07:27that died when it came to the surface.
0:07:33 > 0:07:37The name "mammoth" comes from an ancient Russian word, "mamont",
0:07:37 > 0:07:41meaning "earth horn" used to describe the animal's tusks.
0:07:48 > 0:07:53But it wasn't until 1728 that British scientist Sir Hans Sloane
0:07:53 > 0:07:58spotted the similarities between Siberian remains and a group of modern specimens
0:07:58 > 0:08:03that it was eventually realised that mammoths were a type of elephant.
0:08:08 > 0:08:12Major differences were obvious in the mammoth remains -
0:08:12 > 0:08:19huge tusks, increased musculature to carry the tusks, a shoulder hump.
0:08:20 > 0:08:23the big question was how and why such an animal
0:08:23 > 0:08:27came to live in the extremes of the northern hemisphere.
0:08:32 > 0:08:36We now know that mammoths were a species created by,
0:08:36 > 0:08:41and perfectly adapted to, the most extraordinary period in Earth's history
0:08:41 > 0:08:44the Pleistocene, or Great Ice Age.
0:08:48 > 0:08:52This two-and-a-half million-year cold snap changed the planet,
0:08:52 > 0:08:55and transformed the mammoth into a titan
0:08:55 > 0:08:59capable of thriving in the extremes of the Arctic Circle.
0:09:05 > 0:09:09That change occurred in a blink of evolutionary time,
0:09:09 > 0:09:14and was driven by a perfect storm of exceptional events on a planetary scale.
0:09:16 > 0:09:18For millions of years,
0:09:18 > 0:09:23Antarctica had been drifting southwards to its current position,
0:09:23 > 0:09:27sending the southern hemisphere into a deep freeze.
0:09:27 > 0:09:30And South America was charging northwards.
0:09:30 > 0:09:32It crashed into North America,
0:09:32 > 0:09:36and this altered the ocean currents and gave birth to the Gulf Stream.
0:09:40 > 0:09:44And the knock-on effect of that was increased precipitation in the northern hemisphere,
0:09:44 > 0:09:50which in lower latitudes fell as rain, and, in the north, as snow.
0:09:56 > 0:10:00While these tectonic events were changing the face of the earth
0:10:00 > 0:10:04and propelling it into an ice age, there were also changes occurring
0:10:04 > 0:10:10on a celestial scale, producing dramatic fluctuations in the earth's climate.
0:10:13 > 0:10:18The earth's distance from the sun changes over time.
0:10:18 > 0:10:23Every 100,000 years, the earth is at its furthest position from the sun's warmth
0:10:23 > 0:10:27and our planet enters a cold phase.
0:10:27 > 0:10:31Then there's also variation in the tilt of the earth on its axis
0:10:31 > 0:10:35and that happens over a cycle lasting 41,000 years,
0:10:35 > 0:10:38and affects the degree of difference in the seasons.
0:10:40 > 0:10:43Finally the earth also wobbles on its axis
0:10:43 > 0:10:46on a cycle lasting about 23,000 years.
0:10:51 > 0:10:56When all those planetary factors coincide, winter takes over,
0:10:56 > 0:11:00with ice sheets covering 40% of the Northern Hemisphere.
0:11:03 > 0:11:07To glimpse the extreme conditions that mammoths faced,
0:11:07 > 0:11:11I'm visiting a remnant of one of those immense ice sheets.
0:11:14 > 0:11:18This wall of ice marks the point two thirds of the way up
0:11:18 > 0:11:22the Athabasca Glacier, which is about four miles in length
0:11:22 > 0:11:27and feeds off the huge Columbia Icefield in Western Canada,
0:11:27 > 0:11:32but even that would have been dwarfed by the huge ice sheets of the Pleistocene.
0:11:32 > 0:11:37In places the ice would reach up to 13,000 feet thick.
0:11:44 > 0:11:47These glaciers are really beautiful.
0:11:48 > 0:11:53Really craggy. You look down into the crevasses and they're deep blue inside.
0:11:53 > 0:11:55They're rivers of ice.
0:11:58 > 0:12:03It's incredible to think that most of that would have been under ice,
0:12:03 > 0:12:08with just perhaps a peak of the highest mountains popping out above the ice sheet.
0:12:11 > 0:12:13This is amazing!
0:12:13 > 0:12:15Wow! Oh!
0:12:21 > 0:12:27The ice sheets locked in so much water that they created cloudless, blue skies.
0:12:31 > 0:12:33At latitudes below the ice,
0:12:33 > 0:12:37this provided perfect growing conditions for shrubs and grasses,
0:12:37 > 0:12:41creating a vast grassland, known as the mammoth steppe.
0:12:45 > 0:12:49The steppe proved to be a massive untapped food supply
0:12:49 > 0:12:52for any animal able to adapt to eating its plants.
0:12:54 > 0:12:57This newly available niche drove the mammoths
0:12:57 > 0:13:00to evolve from their origins in the warmth of the southern hemisphere.
0:13:06 > 0:13:10At London's Natural History Museum, Professor Adrian Lister
0:13:10 > 0:13:13has traced those origins through his collection of bones,
0:13:13 > 0:13:16tusks, and, in particular, teeth.
0:13:17 > 0:13:22What we've got here is a lower jaw, or mandible, of a very early mammoth.
0:13:22 > 0:13:26So here's the jawbone, and this is a kind of molar tooth
0:13:26 > 0:13:31that is adapted for eating plant matter, as all elephants and mammoths do,
0:13:31 > 0:13:34and, by counting the number of enamel ridges in this tooth -
0:13:34 > 0:13:35this one's got about ten -
0:13:35 > 0:13:39we get an idea of what kind of plant food these animals ate.
0:13:39 > 0:13:44This one would suggest that this creature was eating the leaves of trees and shrubs,
0:13:44 > 0:13:46quite soft vegetation.
0:13:47 > 0:13:49Teeth like this show that mammoths
0:13:49 > 0:13:54shared a common ancestor with living elephants about six million years ago.
0:13:55 > 0:14:00Over the next three million years, mammoths separated into different species
0:14:00 > 0:14:04as they moved north from their Southern African origins.
0:14:04 > 0:14:07It was the early mammoths that grew truly huge,
0:14:07 > 0:14:11some standing over four metres tall at the shoulder,
0:14:11 > 0:14:15and weighing twice as much as an African bull elephant.
0:14:15 > 0:14:17From about three million years ago,
0:14:17 > 0:14:23we pick up the first remains of the mammoth line out of Africa, north of Africa.
0:14:26 > 0:14:29As they moved through the Middle East and into Eurasia,
0:14:29 > 0:14:31mammoths evolved very quickly.
0:14:32 > 0:14:35Adapting to the cooling conditions,
0:14:35 > 0:14:38their tails and ears shrank to conserve heat.
0:14:38 > 0:14:43Woolly mammoths eventually ended up the same size as Asian elephants.
0:14:46 > 0:14:50Just like elephants, they probably spent most of their day eating,
0:14:50 > 0:14:51but the plants of the steppe
0:14:51 > 0:14:55were far tougher than those available in the tropics.
0:14:56 > 0:14:59Mammoths had four molar teeth.
0:14:59 > 0:15:03To cope with the wear and tear caused by their new diet,
0:15:03 > 0:15:07these molars evolved to have more ridges and higher crowns
0:15:07 > 0:15:09than seen in their relatives.
0:15:09 > 0:15:13And so we have fossils like this molar, from Siberia,
0:15:13 > 0:15:15and that is just about as far as it got, that's the limit.
0:15:15 > 0:15:19So you can see that there's about 26 of these enamel ridges.
0:15:19 > 0:15:23They're very closely packed. This is an almost 100% grass eater,
0:15:23 > 0:15:26which is a late Pleistocene woolly mammoth. This is from the last ice age.
0:15:35 > 0:15:38As members of the elephant family,
0:15:38 > 0:15:43it's believed that mammoths would have behaved in a very similar way to their modern relatives.
0:15:43 > 0:15:46They would have lived in extended social groups,
0:15:46 > 0:15:49females of all ages, young males and infants.
0:15:54 > 0:15:56Now, remains from the Siberian permafrost
0:15:56 > 0:16:01are revealing far more than just teeth and bones ever could.
0:16:04 > 0:16:09The frozen baby Lyuba shows that mammoths possessed an unusual tool,
0:16:09 > 0:16:12perfect for feeding on the steppe.
0:16:12 > 0:16:16She's got this very particular shape to the end of her trunk,
0:16:16 > 0:16:19which is quite different from modern-day elephants,
0:16:19 > 0:16:23and it's designed to be able to delicately pull up
0:16:23 > 0:16:27little tufts of newly-sprouted grass and shrubs.
0:16:33 > 0:16:36Because Lyuba is so well-preserved,
0:16:36 > 0:16:41new scientific techniques have enabled us to examine her internal organs,
0:16:41 > 0:16:45revealing startling adaptations to the extremes of the Ice Age.
0:16:49 > 0:16:55Recent CT scans show her kidneys are far larger than you'd expect in an animal of her size.
0:16:58 > 0:17:03This type of oversized kidney is also seen in desert-adapted camels
0:17:03 > 0:17:08suggesting that mammoths' internal structure was also changing
0:17:08 > 0:17:11to cope with the dry conditions of the Mammoth Steppe,
0:17:11 > 0:17:15where there was plenty of food, but little water.
0:17:21 > 0:17:26Frozen carcasses like Lyuba are revered by scientists
0:17:26 > 0:17:29as windows into the past.
0:17:30 > 0:17:34She was found on the banks of the Uribei River,
0:17:34 > 0:17:36on Siberia's Yamal Peninsula.
0:17:45 > 0:17:50She was brought in from the cold by the French explorer Bernard Buigues.
0:17:54 > 0:17:58He's hunted mammoth remains for over 20 years, amassing a huge collection
0:17:58 > 0:18:01which he shares with scientists around the world.
0:18:02 > 0:18:09Here we have approximately 400, 450 remains of different mammoths, yeah?
0:18:09 > 0:18:14But, of course, not 450 full carcass.
0:18:14 > 0:18:18But each bone can tell you the story of the animal
0:18:18 > 0:18:22so we can say that, here, we store around 450 mammoth.
0:18:27 > 0:18:32Bernard works closely with a large network of indigenous Arctic people.
0:18:32 > 0:18:36They contact him when they stumble upon mammoth remains.
0:18:40 > 0:18:45He now gets more calls than ever as the permafrost is melting
0:18:45 > 0:18:49at an unprecedented rate, exposing potential new finds.
0:18:57 > 0:19:00A brief window of fine weather bathes the Arctic
0:19:00 > 0:19:03in round-the-clock sunlight each summer.
0:19:04 > 0:19:08It's the perfect time for me to join him as he makes camp
0:19:08 > 0:19:13and starts a new expedition following reports of a mammoth discovery.
0:19:15 > 0:19:20If true, it will further our understanding of these Ice Age titans.
0:19:24 > 0:19:28We're deep in the tundra here, about 200 miles north of any major town,
0:19:28 > 0:19:32and it's beautiful sunny weather at the moment,
0:19:32 > 0:19:36but it could turn at any point and the snow could return.
0:19:42 > 0:19:45This is such a dynamic time.
0:19:45 > 0:19:48Things are on the move, and things are being eroded as well.
0:19:48 > 0:19:53The river banks are literally falling into the rivers as the water levels rise
0:19:53 > 0:19:58and so it's precisely now that ancient remains start to come to light.
0:20:07 > 0:20:12Bernard's a member of the International Mammoth Committee...
0:20:14 > 0:20:17..a team which includes palaeontologists...
0:20:20 > 0:20:24..geophysicists with ground-penetrating radar...
0:20:26 > 0:20:29..and even an ex-KGB officer.
0:20:34 > 0:20:37Professor Dan Fisher of Michigan University
0:20:37 > 0:20:40is the world's leading mammoth tusk expert.
0:20:44 > 0:20:46He visits the Arctic each year,
0:20:46 > 0:20:49and, through analysing hundreds of tusks,
0:20:49 > 0:20:54he's developed an unrivalled understanding of the mammoth populations that once roamed here.
0:20:58 > 0:21:00So did tusks grow throughout the life of a mammoth?
0:21:00 > 0:21:03Do they actually represent a record of an entire lifetime?
0:21:03 > 0:21:05They do.
0:21:05 > 0:21:07That's one of the, I mean just thinking of it
0:21:07 > 0:21:10sort of aesthetically, it's almost magical,
0:21:10 > 0:21:13but here these things are that do grow throughout life,
0:21:13 > 0:21:15that are virtual diaries.
0:21:16 > 0:21:22There are days represented, each day as a thin layer of dentine,
0:21:22 > 0:21:26days, weeks, years are all recorded structurally
0:21:26 > 0:21:28and in patterns of compositional variation
0:21:28 > 0:21:32and of course they didn't do it for our benefit!
0:21:32 > 0:21:36But what insights it gives us in the lives of these animals.
0:21:38 > 0:21:42'Although each tusk is a valuable source of information,
0:21:42 > 0:21:45'it's only when multiple finds are compared with each other,
0:21:45 > 0:21:48'that Dan's able to construct an understanding
0:21:48 > 0:21:50'of entire mammoth populations.'
0:21:52 > 0:21:55I think it can seem as though you are stamp collecting,
0:21:55 > 0:21:58that you're just collecting specimens for the sake of it,
0:21:58 > 0:22:01but there's a real scientific value to them.
0:22:01 > 0:22:03There is. The problem is not solved.
0:22:03 > 0:22:07We've established that the data that we would need are available.
0:22:07 > 0:22:11We've established the first few points that suggest a direction
0:22:11 > 0:22:15and give some meaning to the patterns that we see.
0:22:25 > 0:22:27'Understanding mammoths takes more
0:22:27 > 0:22:29'than museum work and text books,
0:22:29 > 0:22:33'it requires teams like the International Mammoth Committee
0:22:33 > 0:22:36'to venture into the wilderness, working with locals
0:22:36 > 0:22:43'and hunting for specimens, at times chasing nothing more than rumours.'
0:22:43 > 0:22:45Bernard's just been on a reconnaissance mission,
0:22:45 > 0:22:49so hopefully he should be able to corroborate whether there
0:22:49 > 0:22:54is in fact a mammoth around here, or whether it's all wild tales.
0:23:00 > 0:23:01DOG BARKS
0:23:05 > 0:23:07Welcome back, welcome back.
0:23:09 > 0:23:12So Bernard, how did it go?
0:23:14 > 0:23:17Difficult to say, you know how fast things are changing.
0:23:17 > 0:23:21- Yeah, yeah. - So, some days ago it was under ice,
0:23:21 > 0:23:26and today and tomorrow I don't know we'll see what will happen.
0:23:26 > 0:23:29Have you been able to speak to anybody that's actually seen it?
0:23:29 > 0:23:31No because it's a bit secret, yeah,
0:23:31 > 0:23:35you know the one who knows about the mammoth, won't say to anybody and...
0:23:35 > 0:23:40But I see that you are very impatient and I'm...
0:23:40 > 0:23:41Yeah, yeah, I'm excited to get there.
0:23:41 > 0:23:43Yeah, I am, I am, I'm also.
0:23:49 > 0:23:53'Bernard has scant information to work with.
0:23:53 > 0:23:56'During this hunt his team are hitchhiking
0:23:56 > 0:23:59'with a Siberian gas company's private train network
0:23:59 > 0:24:02'to visit the scene of a mammoth sighting.
0:24:02 > 0:24:07'It's now flooded after the spring snow melt.'
0:24:13 > 0:24:15You see the location is quite big, yeah?
0:24:15 > 0:24:19It is a large lake. And do you think the mammoth is where
0:24:19 > 0:24:21in relation to the lake thing, because it's a big lake.
0:24:21 > 0:24:24It's difficult to know can be in the middle of the lake,
0:24:24 > 0:24:27- can be on the side.- I hope it's not in the middle of the lake.
0:24:27 > 0:24:28Yeah, yeah, can be, can be.
0:24:33 > 0:24:35'The team is trying to use ground penetrating radar
0:24:35 > 0:24:38'to search for specimens underground.'
0:24:42 > 0:24:44'Here they work for days in an effort to find
0:24:44 > 0:24:48'one of the rarest of all prehistoric riches -
0:24:48 > 0:24:49'a frozen carcass.
0:24:55 > 0:24:59'Looking for ancient mammoth remains is unpredictable.
0:24:59 > 0:25:04'It's a science, but an inexact science.
0:25:04 > 0:25:06'This hunt concludes with a negative result.'
0:25:15 > 0:25:19I am a little bit frustrated but,
0:25:19 > 0:25:23just now I need to keep in mind how to organise the next step
0:25:23 > 0:25:27for this mammoth because I will not let him,
0:25:27 > 0:25:31let's say alone, yeah, we need to take care of him.
0:25:31 > 0:25:33See what will happen during the summer.
0:25:33 > 0:25:35Yeah.
0:25:42 > 0:25:44LAUGHTER
0:25:51 > 0:25:53'Each new specimen has the potential
0:25:53 > 0:25:56'to deepen our understanding of mammoths.
0:25:56 > 0:25:58'In many ways we actually know more about mammoths
0:25:58 > 0:26:01'than we do about many living species,
0:26:01 > 0:26:04'enabling us to recreate how they would have lived
0:26:04 > 0:26:06'on the Siberian plains.'
0:26:08 > 0:26:11'Much of that understanding has come from
0:26:11 > 0:26:14'the recent advances in analysing mammoth tusks.'
0:26:20 > 0:26:24I first met Dan Fisher out in the field in Siberia,
0:26:24 > 0:26:25but now I've come to his place of work
0:26:25 > 0:26:29at the University of Michigan's Museum of Natural History,
0:26:29 > 0:26:33to find out what happens to the tusks which he brings back with him.
0:26:36 > 0:26:38'It's the internal structure of a tusk which reveals
0:26:38 > 0:26:40'a mammoth's true secrets.
0:26:42 > 0:26:46'But the only way to see it is to break a tusk open.'
0:26:49 > 0:26:51Dan, this is a beautiful tusk.
0:26:51 > 0:26:54It seems like an almost sacrilegious thing to think of doing,
0:26:54 > 0:26:57you know this has survived for thousands of years
0:26:57 > 0:27:01- and we're going to cut it open. - Well, I understand that,
0:27:01 > 0:27:06but what if you found an incredible old manuscript and it was closed?
0:27:06 > 0:27:09Would it be sacrilegious to open it and read it?
0:27:09 > 0:27:11Would it be sacrilegious to learn from it?
0:27:11 > 0:27:15Yes, in some sense, we are, you could say, violating the tusk.
0:27:15 > 0:27:20But in another sense it's really capturing the story it has to tell.
0:27:20 > 0:27:23Which tooth is it that forms the tusk?
0:27:23 > 0:27:26The tusks of elephants and their relatives
0:27:26 > 0:27:29are modified second incisors, so not our middle ones,
0:27:29 > 0:27:32- but just lateral to that. - The lateral incisors.
0:27:32 > 0:27:34Can you tell if it's a left or a right?
0:27:34 > 0:27:38Yes, this is a right tusk, based on the geometry of curvature,
0:27:38 > 0:27:41is such that it's characteristic of what
0:27:41 > 0:27:45we see on the right side of mammoth's faces.
0:27:45 > 0:27:48So a right tusk. And do you know how old this animal might have
0:27:48 > 0:27:49been at the time of death?
0:27:49 > 0:27:52This was probably say about a 15-year-old.
0:27:52 > 0:27:54That's a ballpark guess right now,
0:27:54 > 0:27:56we'll find out after we cut the tusk.
0:27:56 > 0:27:58- Yeah, so a teenage mammoth!- Right.
0:28:00 > 0:28:02'Dan needs a clean cut,
0:28:02 > 0:28:07'so he builds a bespoke cradle for each tusk before slicing it open.'
0:28:12 > 0:28:13All right.
0:28:13 > 0:28:16'The largest mammoth tusks ever found
0:28:16 > 0:28:19'weighed almost 120 kilograms each.
0:28:19 > 0:28:22'Far more than an average adult man.
0:28:25 > 0:28:29'Both male and female mammoths possessed large tusks,
0:28:29 > 0:28:32'and it seems that the weight of carrying such huge objects
0:28:32 > 0:28:36'required them to have larger neck and shoulder muscles
0:28:36 > 0:28:39'than we see in modern elephants.
0:28:46 > 0:28:51'The surface of tusks show microscopic scratches,
0:28:51 > 0:28:54'possibly caused when mammoths used them
0:28:54 > 0:28:57'to clear ice and snow while foraging for food.
0:28:59 > 0:29:00MAMMOTHS TRUMPET
0:29:02 > 0:29:07'And polished areas indicate they may have favoured
0:29:07 > 0:29:09'one of their tusks for resting their trunks on.'
0:29:20 > 0:29:24Well we've done it, now we've just got to open it up.
0:29:24 > 0:29:28- Ooh. - The moment we've waited for.
0:29:28 > 0:29:29Can I do this Dan?
0:29:29 > 0:29:33Yes, you certainly may. So just lift up and away.
0:29:33 > 0:29:35SHE WHISPERS: Look at that!
0:29:35 > 0:29:38- That's beautiful. - It's gorgeous.
0:29:38 > 0:29:42So, I can see a darker streak and a paler one and a darker one,
0:29:42 > 0:29:44so is that a year in this animal's life?
0:29:44 > 0:29:45That would be a year, yes.
0:29:45 > 0:29:48The dark portions basically are winter,
0:29:48 > 0:29:52and so the light and the dark together would make one year
0:29:52 > 0:29:55and the next light and dark together would make the next year.
0:29:55 > 0:29:59- So, this is a record of an ancient Winter.- Right.
0:30:08 > 0:30:10'The tusk is packed with information,
0:30:10 > 0:30:14'but the patterns in it are hard to see until it's polished
0:30:14 > 0:30:15'and viewed under ultra violet light.'
0:30:18 > 0:30:21- Oh, wow. - OK, now that is a lot better.
0:30:21 > 0:30:24- That's fantastic. What a difference.- Isn't it?
0:30:24 > 0:30:27That's amazing, that's so much more detail than we could see.
0:30:27 > 0:30:31- It's like you've put on magic glasses and you can see through it. - Yeah, yeah.
0:30:33 > 0:30:38'Like other teeth, tusks grow from the jaw outwards.
0:30:38 > 0:30:42'Once highlighted, the growth bands are clearly visible,
0:30:42 > 0:30:45'spreading from root to tip.
0:30:46 > 0:30:49'Although this tusk shows about 15 years of growth,
0:30:49 > 0:30:54'there are in fact hundreds of microscopic growth lines present.'
0:30:57 > 0:31:02- We're seeing some really beautiful fine lines here.- Yes.
0:31:02 > 0:31:05So we can see successive winters and summers, winters and summers,
0:31:05 > 0:31:07- Right.- Winters.- Right.
0:31:07 > 0:31:10Now, in fact, the direction of time though is outside in, so the years.
0:31:11 > 0:31:14It's the opposite of trees is the way to think of it.
0:31:14 > 0:31:17In a tree you would think time goes this way
0:31:17 > 0:31:20but in a tusk time goes this way.
0:31:20 > 0:31:22And it is like looking at tree rings,
0:31:22 > 0:31:25you know we have these kind of annual cycles in tree rings as well.
0:31:25 > 0:31:29Except that tusks have weeks and days which trees don't have.
0:31:29 > 0:31:30That's fantastic.
0:31:33 > 0:31:37This is just incredible and very, very beautiful as well.
0:31:37 > 0:31:43Under this ultraviolet light we can see this detail within the tusk
0:31:43 > 0:31:46that is a thing of great beauty, but underneath that beauty,
0:31:46 > 0:31:48inside that beauty, is this information
0:31:48 > 0:31:50about this mammoth's life.
0:31:53 > 0:31:57'Drilling out tiny amounts of ivory from daily growth lines
0:31:57 > 0:32:02'allows Dan's team to analyse chemical isotopes
0:32:02 > 0:32:05'laid down on that day, painting a prehistoric picture
0:32:05 > 0:32:08'of the animal's life with a level of detail
0:32:08 > 0:32:12'that's not possible for any other extinct species.
0:32:13 > 0:32:15'Oxygen isotopes, from the water it drank,
0:32:15 > 0:32:19'reveal where the mammoth roamed throughout its life.
0:32:21 > 0:32:24'Nitrogen isotopes reveal where a mammoth was
0:32:24 > 0:32:27'getting its protein from.
0:32:27 > 0:32:29'We can even pinpoint exactly
0:32:29 > 0:32:32'when an infant was weaned from its mother's milk.
0:32:37 > 0:32:43'Carbon isotopes show the types and relative quantities of plants eaten.
0:32:45 > 0:32:47'Thinner and darker growth lines
0:32:47 > 0:32:51'indicate winters when less food was available,
0:32:51 > 0:32:54'and in some cases, periods of starvation.
0:32:56 > 0:32:59'Because the growth lines are so detailed,
0:32:59 > 0:33:03'Dan can identify the point when, upon reaching sexual maturity,
0:33:03 > 0:33:07'teenage male mammoths were cast out from their herds
0:33:07 > 0:33:10'and left to find food for themselves.
0:33:14 > 0:33:18'It's also possible to see that sexually mature males
0:33:18 > 0:33:22'starved themselves every year, during the period known as musth,
0:33:22 > 0:33:25'just as living elephants do.
0:33:28 > 0:33:32'This sees them all consumed by the desire to find a mate.
0:33:33 > 0:33:38'They fail to eat and their tusks show a period of decreased growth.
0:33:45 > 0:33:48'The tusks also bear witness to traumatic events,
0:33:49 > 0:33:52'including the most spectacular of all sights
0:33:52 > 0:33:57'a battle between males competing for mating rights.
0:33:57 > 0:33:59THEY TRUMPET
0:34:01 > 0:34:02THEY GROWL
0:34:02 > 0:34:03HE TRUMPETS
0:34:24 > 0:34:27HE TRUMPETS
0:34:34 > 0:34:36The study of mammoths is nothing new.
0:34:36 > 0:34:40They were first described scientifically over 200 years ago.
0:34:40 > 0:34:45But now new techniques in DNA analysis are being used to
0:34:45 > 0:34:47decipher the mammoth genome.
0:34:57 > 0:35:00'Here at America's Penn State University,
0:35:00 > 0:35:03'geneticist Stephan Schuster runs a team
0:35:03 > 0:35:07'of DNA specialists who are using cutting edge 21st century
0:35:07 > 0:35:11'technology to analyse mammoth DNA.
0:35:11 > 0:35:15'Their results are pushing our understanding of mammoths
0:35:15 > 0:35:18'far beyond what was previously possible.'
0:35:19 > 0:35:24How difficult is it to extract DNA from a mammoth?
0:35:24 > 0:35:25It's actually, it's quite difficult
0:35:25 > 0:35:28because there's only tiny amounts of DNA left.
0:35:29 > 0:35:32At the same time you need to imagine that all the bacteria
0:35:32 > 0:35:37that lived on that animal deposit their own DNA on top of the DNA
0:35:37 > 0:35:38coming from the animal.
0:35:40 > 0:35:42'DNA contains the genetic instructions
0:35:42 > 0:35:46'used in the development and functioning of all animals,
0:35:46 > 0:35:50'but it deteriorates very quickly after death.
0:35:51 > 0:35:54'In the case of long dead mammoths, many of the remains recovered
0:35:54 > 0:35:57'provide virtually no usable DNA,
0:35:57 > 0:36:03'so Schuster uses the plentiful supply of mammoth hair as a source.'
0:36:05 > 0:36:10So take me through the process of extracting DNA from a mammoth.
0:36:10 > 0:36:14It's actually quite surprising, it's not so unlike what you would do
0:36:14 > 0:36:15with your own hair.
0:36:15 > 0:36:19So first we wash it, we rinse it with water, we shampoo it,
0:36:19 > 0:36:20in the end we even bleach it.
0:36:22 > 0:36:27And then we use an enzyme to digest the hair shaft,
0:36:27 > 0:36:31and we release the mammoth DNA that's stored on the inside.
0:36:34 > 0:36:38'Genetics labs commonly use bone as a source of ancient DNA.
0:36:40 > 0:36:43'But frequently contaminated,
0:36:43 > 0:36:46'mammoth bones often provide little useable DNA.
0:36:49 > 0:36:51'Schuster's use of mammoth hair
0:36:51 > 0:36:54'provides a surprisingly pure sample.'
0:36:56 > 0:36:59In one instance we working on an individual
0:36:59 > 0:37:01that was 18,000 years old,
0:37:01 > 0:37:06and we could get more than 90 percent of mammoth DNA from it,
0:37:06 > 0:37:08and the oldest specimen that we sequenced
0:37:08 > 0:37:11was roughly 60,000 years old, and there we still get
0:37:11 > 0:37:14more than 50 percent that is endogenous mammoth DNA.
0:37:17 > 0:37:21'Genetic analysis has dispelled a myth about the very source
0:37:21 > 0:37:24'from whence the DNA comes mammoth hair.
0:37:26 > 0:37:30'Mammoths have traditionally been depicted as having
0:37:30 > 0:37:32'orange-brown hair.
0:37:32 > 0:37:35'It's now known that they possessed similar genes to
0:37:35 > 0:37:37'humans for hair colouration.
0:37:37 > 0:37:43'Theoretically they could have been blonde, ginger, or brunette.
0:37:49 > 0:37:52'Whatever the colour, the quality of the coat was crucial.
0:37:54 > 0:37:59'Like the Arctic musk ox, mammoths sported double layered coats.
0:38:01 > 0:38:05'Short, dense, downy hairs next to the skin provided insulation.
0:38:07 > 0:38:12'Long, shaggy guard hairs kept out the wind, rain and snow.
0:38:19 > 0:38:23'Thick hair is an obvious cold weather adaptation,
0:38:23 > 0:38:27'but now advances in genetic studies provide us
0:38:27 > 0:38:31'with detailed insights into molecular level adaptations,
0:38:31 > 0:38:35'allowing mammoths to cope with the extremes of the Ice Age.
0:38:37 > 0:38:42'Dr Kevin Campbell of Manitoba University in Canada investigates
0:38:42 > 0:38:46'how their blood evolved to cope with the freezing conditions.'
0:38:48 > 0:38:52What I'm really interested in is the protein haemoglobin,
0:38:52 > 0:38:55the primary component of the blood.
0:38:55 > 0:38:58This protein is really the interface between the atmosphere
0:38:58 > 0:39:00and the cell, you know,
0:39:00 > 0:39:03it's that transporter protein of all the oxygen in the body.
0:39:08 > 0:39:11'Kevin usually studies mice, and how the haemoglobin in their blood
0:39:11 > 0:39:16'delivers oxygen to their cells, especially in cold weather.'
0:39:22 > 0:39:25'But his childhood obsession with mammoths prompted him
0:39:25 > 0:39:29'to try to see if he could figure out how well the haemoglobin
0:39:29 > 0:39:34'in mammoth blood worked in the extreme cold of the ice age.
0:39:35 > 0:39:39'However, blood dries up and decomposes quickly,
0:39:39 > 0:39:42'so no mammoth haemoglobin has survived
0:39:42 > 0:39:45'in any of the specimens discovered so far.
0:39:47 > 0:39:49'But, because Kevin had the mammoth instruction
0:39:49 > 0:39:55'manual in the form of their decoded DNA, he was able to compare
0:39:55 > 0:39:58'their code for making haemoglobin with that of their close relatives,
0:39:58 > 0:40:03'modern elephants. There were only four differences between the codes.
0:40:07 > 0:40:10'This enabled Kevin to use host bacteria to produce
0:40:10 > 0:40:15'his very own protein based on modified elephant DNA.'
0:40:17 > 0:40:21And effectively we turned it into mammoth DNA. Functional mammoth DNA.
0:40:21 > 0:40:26A functional protein that has been extinct for thousands of years.
0:40:26 > 0:40:28For thousands of years.
0:40:28 > 0:40:32A functional protein that hasn't existed in any animal for thousands of years, that's amazing,
0:40:32 > 0:40:34it's starting to sound a bit like Jurassic Park.
0:40:34 > 0:40:36And it's not even just functional it's authentic.
0:40:36 > 0:40:39This is, in essence, virtual time travel.
0:40:39 > 0:40:43The end product is precisely the same, had I gone back in time
0:40:43 > 0:40:47and taken a blood sample, it is absolutely authentic.
0:40:47 > 0:40:50That's absolutely remarkable and once you've got the mammoth
0:40:50 > 0:40:53haemoglobin then you can test it, you can see how it does.
0:40:53 > 0:40:57You can look at how it picks up oxygen and how it lets go of it.
0:40:57 > 0:41:01Precisely the same way as I would take it from your blood.
0:41:01 > 0:41:05'In most animals, haemoglobins ability to deliver oxygen
0:41:05 > 0:41:08'to body tissues decreases at low temperatures.
0:41:11 > 0:41:14'To see if mammoth blood had any special adaptations to the cold,
0:41:14 > 0:41:17'Kevin tested the haemoglobin he'd created
0:41:17 > 0:41:20'across a range of temperatures.'
0:41:20 > 0:41:23And sure enough, when we looked at the haemoglobin of the mammoth
0:41:23 > 0:41:26versus that of the living animals, at normal body temperature,
0:41:26 > 0:41:29around 37 degrees Celsius, their properties were the same.
0:41:29 > 0:41:33It has the same abilities to pick up and offload oxygen.
0:41:33 > 0:41:35But what about at low temperatures?
0:41:35 > 0:41:38Yeah, so as temperatures went down, the abilities diverged.
0:41:38 > 0:41:41So as temperature got lower and lower,
0:41:41 > 0:41:46mammoth haemoglobin, we found, was more able to offload oxygen
0:41:46 > 0:41:50than that of the Asian elephant, and far better than that of humans.
0:41:53 > 0:41:58It is incredible to be able to take ancient DNA
0:41:58 > 0:42:01and to resurrect a protein from the past.
0:42:01 > 0:42:05A protein which hasn't existed in a living animal
0:42:05 > 0:42:07for thousands of years,
0:42:07 > 0:42:11and once we have this protein we can look at how it behaves.
0:42:11 > 0:42:15Mammoth haemoglobin can deliver oxygen at very low temperatures,
0:42:15 > 0:42:19meaning that mammoths could let their legs,
0:42:19 > 0:42:22their extremities GET cold.
0:42:22 > 0:42:25And they could then hold on to their body heat,
0:42:25 > 0:42:31and conserve energy through the long cold winters of the ice age.
0:42:31 > 0:42:33It was crucial to survival.
0:42:38 > 0:42:41'These new molecular level investigations are bringing
0:42:41 > 0:42:44'the science-fiction style possibility
0:42:44 > 0:42:48'of cloning a mammoth ever closer.'
0:42:49 > 0:42:52'In the far east of Siberia an incredible new discovery
0:42:52 > 0:42:56'is being heralded as the holy grail of mammoth science.
0:43:00 > 0:43:05'In the city of Yakutsk, members of the International Mammoth Committee
0:43:05 > 0:43:09'have unearthed a completely intact frozen mammoth thigh bone.
0:43:16 > 0:43:19'Although thousands of years old,
0:43:19 > 0:43:21'it's one of the best preserved bone specimens
0:43:21 > 0:43:23'retrieved from the permafrost.
0:43:23 > 0:43:28'So perfectly frozen that it contains pure mammoth bone marrow.
0:43:29 > 0:43:33'This could be the best source ever of fully intact mammoth cells,
0:43:33 > 0:43:35'with undamaged DNA.'
0:43:35 > 0:43:38THEY TALK IN JAPANESE
0:43:44 > 0:43:49'The marrow will be sent to a lab in Japan where they will try to extract
0:43:49 > 0:43:54intact cell nuclei, and insert them in to a host elephant egg.
0:43:56 > 0:43:58'If successful,
0:43:58 > 0:44:02'scientists there predict that they will be able to clone a mammoth
0:44:02 > 0:44:07'by using a female elephant as a surrogate mother within five years.'
0:44:14 > 0:44:17'But the ethics of creating such a clone
0:44:17 > 0:44:20'is likely to kick up a storm of debate.
0:44:21 > 0:44:24'Should scientists even be attempting
0:44:24 > 0:44:27'to resurrect an extinct species?
0:44:31 > 0:44:34'Rather than trying to clone a long-dead species,
0:44:34 > 0:44:39'many scientists are far more eager to understand why the mammoths
0:44:39 > 0:44:43'died out in the first place.'
0:44:46 > 0:44:50'Their extinction coincided with the warming climate
0:44:50 > 0:44:51'at the end of the ice age.
0:44:53 > 0:44:57'The environment they'd perfectly adapted to was changing.
0:44:59 > 0:45:03'The blue skies that created the steppe grew heavy with cloud.
0:45:03 > 0:45:05'Rain returned to the North.
0:45:07 > 0:45:12'Dry grassland was replaced with wet tundra plants and forests,
0:45:12 > 0:45:16'the mammoths' favoured food supply was dwindling.
0:45:20 > 0:45:23'But the genetic studies completed recently,
0:45:23 > 0:45:24'suggest that woolly mammoths
0:45:24 > 0:45:27'had coped well with similar changes in the past.
0:45:29 > 0:45:31'A population crash occurred,
0:45:31 > 0:45:34'30,000 years before they finally disappeared.
0:45:35 > 0:45:39'But they recovered, suggesting that something else,
0:45:39 > 0:45:42'other than changing habitat may have spelt the end.'
0:45:44 > 0:45:50The mammoth had survived through many fluctuations in the climate,
0:45:50 > 0:45:53through all of these warming and cooling cycles,
0:45:53 > 0:45:56why was it at the very end of the ice age
0:45:56 > 0:45:58that they seemed to give up?
0:45:58 > 0:46:01It might not have been an all-or-nothing process,
0:46:01 > 0:46:03that it's just depending on this one last cycle.
0:46:03 > 0:46:07It might actually have been a gradual process that after
0:46:07 > 0:46:10every warming and cooling period, that not only the population
0:46:10 > 0:46:13numbers but also the diversity of the animals went down.
0:46:21 > 0:46:25'Professor Dan Fisher thinks he might now have the answer.
0:46:29 > 0:46:31'After analysing hundreds of ancient tusks
0:46:31 > 0:46:33'from different mammoth species,
0:46:33 > 0:46:36'he's uncovered a pattern suggesting
0:46:36 > 0:46:39'that mammoths were being increasingly hunted
0:46:39 > 0:46:44'by predators as the climate grew warmer, and their numbers dwindled.'
0:46:47 > 0:46:50So, you've obviously seen changes in lots of tusks
0:46:50 > 0:46:53that you think are evidence of predation pressure.
0:46:53 > 0:46:54So, what are those changes,
0:46:54 > 0:46:57what was going on in these mammoth populations?
0:46:57 > 0:46:59The changes that we see that seem best
0:46:59 > 0:47:02explained by increases in predation pressure,
0:47:02 > 0:47:07are things like maturation at a younger age, calving intervals,
0:47:07 > 0:47:09or intervals between calves in females
0:47:09 > 0:47:11that are, if anything, shorter,
0:47:11 > 0:47:16in other words these are changes that are reasonable responses
0:47:16 > 0:47:21to a changing balance of risk between survival and reproduction.
0:47:21 > 0:47:24It's better if there's more predation going on
0:47:24 > 0:47:28to reproduce a little bit earlier, even if it's smaller body size.
0:47:28 > 0:47:29And to have a few more calves,
0:47:29 > 0:47:33even if there's less investment in individual calves.
0:47:33 > 0:47:36It's a better bet, so to speak, in the long run to have that
0:47:36 > 0:47:40kind of a life history in a regime of higher incidence of predation.
0:47:40 > 0:47:44So I think the evidence is that human hunting was an extremely
0:47:44 > 0:47:47important aspect of what drove the extinction.
0:47:50 > 0:47:53'If Dan Fisher is right it's a huge step forward
0:47:53 > 0:47:56'in explaining mammoths' extinction.
0:47:58 > 0:48:02'He's sure mammoths were maturing fast and having babies early towards
0:48:02 > 0:48:06'the end of the ice age, a classic sign that they were being hunted.
0:48:10 > 0:48:16'But in Siberia, the evidence that, that predation was by man is scarce.
0:48:30 > 0:48:34'Now potential new evidence has surfaced.
0:48:34 > 0:48:37'Dan's colleague, mammoth hunter Bernard Buigues,
0:48:37 > 0:48:41'thinks he might have made a new discovery which could support
0:48:41 > 0:48:45'the idea that humans hunted mammoths to extinction.
0:48:50 > 0:48:54'In a secret location on the edges of the Arctic Ocean,
0:48:54 > 0:48:59'thousands of miles away from where I first met him, he's recovered
0:48:59 > 0:49:02'a new specimen, which was found frozen in the banks of a river.
0:49:03 > 0:49:07'He's suggesting it shows signs of human interaction
0:49:07 > 0:49:11'this could be a missing link in the human/mammoth puzzle.'
0:49:11 > 0:49:13CHATTER
0:49:18 > 0:49:22'I seize the chance to witness such a find and fly back to Siberia
0:49:22 > 0:49:25'to meet Bernard, who's transporting the mammoth
0:49:25 > 0:49:27'across the frozen tundra.
0:49:34 > 0:49:38'We agree to rendezvous in the remote wilderness of Yakutia.'
0:50:00 > 0:50:03Well, this is it, this is the rendezvous point.
0:50:04 > 0:50:08And I know they're on their way, I can't hear anything yet though.
0:50:12 > 0:50:16But it is incredibly cold. I hope it's worth it.
0:50:16 > 0:50:18They're bringing this mammoth in,
0:50:18 > 0:50:21they're going to eventually take it to Yakutsk,
0:50:21 > 0:50:24and we'll be able to have a look at it there,
0:50:24 > 0:50:28and hopefully it will be another piece of the puzzle.
0:50:28 > 0:50:32It will add to our understanding of these ancient creatures
0:50:32 > 0:50:34that once roamed around this landscape.
0:50:40 > 0:50:43Oh, I think I can see them.
0:50:43 > 0:50:47Can you see the lights over there, on the horizon?
0:50:47 > 0:50:49They've just crested the hill.
0:50:49 > 0:50:52Oh this is fantastic, it's just so exciting.
0:50:59 > 0:51:03Bernard! Oh, my God!
0:51:03 > 0:51:06- You've done it. - Yeah, yeah, yeah.
0:51:06 > 0:51:08Oh my goodness, and where's the mammoth?
0:51:08 > 0:51:10The mammoth is laying like this yeah,
0:51:10 > 0:51:14he's on the back with the four legs up,
0:51:14 > 0:51:16and it's a young mammoth.
0:51:16 > 0:51:17Yeah, it's smaller than I expected.
0:51:17 > 0:51:21It's a wonderful specimen, you will see. I want to show you.
0:51:21 > 0:51:24- Oh, fantastic.- I want to show. - Oh, that's brilliant.
0:51:24 > 0:51:25- I want to share with you. - All right, lovely.
0:51:41 > 0:51:44'We board an ex-military transporter plane
0:51:44 > 0:51:46'to travel a further 500 miles south,
0:51:46 > 0:51:49'where we'll start the analysis of the mammoth
0:51:49 > 0:51:51'in a permafrost ice cave.
0:52:28 > 0:52:31'Will this frozen carcass reveal any clues to help explain
0:52:31 > 0:52:34'the mammoth's extinction?'
0:52:45 > 0:52:49I can't wait to see it, it's travelled all this distance.
0:52:50 > 0:52:54It is like unwrapping an ancient mummy. It is an ancient mummy!
0:52:54 > 0:52:56It is an ancient mummy, sure.
0:52:56 > 0:52:59- The trunk.- It's the trunk.
0:52:59 > 0:53:00It's beautiful.
0:53:01 > 0:53:02SHE GASPS
0:53:02 > 0:53:05Oh, my goodness! Oh, my goodness, that's amazing!
0:53:07 > 0:53:08Long hair, yeah.
0:53:08 > 0:53:10That fur's really long.
0:53:16 > 0:53:18'From its size it looks as though this mammoth
0:53:18 > 0:53:22'was about 3 or 4 years old when it died.
0:53:24 > 0:53:27'After thousands of years lying frozen in the ground
0:53:27 > 0:53:31'it's twisted and contorted. Now lying on its back,
0:53:31 > 0:53:36'it's head is flopped to one side and its legs stick up in to the air.
0:53:36 > 0:53:40'Its foot pads and thick strawberry blonde hair
0:53:40 > 0:53:42'are exquisitely preserved.'
0:53:44 > 0:53:46I'm jealous. He has much more hair than me!
0:53:47 > 0:53:51Isn't it hard to believe that this is something which died
0:53:51 > 0:53:54so long ago? I mean it doesn't look like an animal which has been
0:53:54 > 0:53:57dead for thousands and thousands of years, an animal from the Ice Age.
0:53:57 > 0:54:01You can't believe that it's more than 10,000 years old.
0:54:01 > 0:54:03It looks so fresh, it looks almost alive.
0:54:03 > 0:54:06So fresh yeah, yeah, yeah.
0:54:06 > 0:54:08- It is beautiful. - It IS beautiful.
0:54:10 > 0:54:13'This specimen is also mysterious.
0:54:13 > 0:54:18'We don't yet know if it's male or female, or when it died.
0:54:18 > 0:54:24'But most mysterious of all are the signs of human interaction.
0:54:27 > 0:54:30'It has two large cuts on its back,
0:54:30 > 0:54:33'through which many of its bones have been removed,
0:54:33 > 0:54:36'including its spine and skull.'
0:54:39 > 0:54:42So this is very clearly not natural processes,
0:54:42 > 0:54:44this is absolutely human tampering.
0:54:46 > 0:54:49The really big question is, did this happen recently,
0:54:49 > 0:54:51or did it happen in antiquity?
0:54:51 > 0:54:54For me definitely it happened a long time ago.
0:54:54 > 0:54:59A long time ago, because, can you see, the skin is dry, yeah,
0:54:59 > 0:55:03mummified, I can not see how it can be cut.
0:55:03 > 0:55:06And it's not so easy to open it,
0:55:06 > 0:55:11and of course, we need to work more on this.
0:55:11 > 0:55:14Yeah, and this is a wonderful, wonderful thing.
0:55:14 > 0:55:17You know, it's an amazing specimen of a young mammoth,
0:55:17 > 0:55:20and this is just the beginning, isn't it?
0:55:20 > 0:55:23Because now the investigation will proceed,
0:55:23 > 0:55:25and we will find out as much as we possibly can
0:55:25 > 0:55:28about the life and the death of this animal,
0:55:28 > 0:55:31and the way that humans interacted with it.
0:55:31 > 0:55:34Yes, this is exciting, this is very, very exciting.
0:55:50 > 0:55:53It's actually very difficult to see anything with
0:55:53 > 0:55:56the mammoth in this frozen state.
0:55:56 > 0:55:59The scientists are going to have to defrost it to get
0:55:59 > 0:56:00to the bottom of this story.
0:56:03 > 0:56:07How exciting though if they do find out that this mammoth was
0:56:07 > 0:56:11tampered with by ancient people.
0:56:13 > 0:56:15'If it was interfered with in the deep past,
0:56:15 > 0:56:20'this would be an incredibly important specimen
0:56:20 > 0:56:23'showing interaction between ancient humans and woolly mammoths.
0:56:25 > 0:56:28'People usually kill animals for food.
0:56:28 > 0:56:31'But this specimen hasn't been butchered,
0:56:31 > 0:56:35'and although now dried out, most of the meat is untouched.
0:56:42 > 0:56:46'Humans have certainly interfered with this carcass.
0:56:46 > 0:56:49'Bones have been removed and the tusks are missing.
0:56:50 > 0:56:52'But for me, the big question is
0:56:52 > 0:56:57'whether that happened very recently or in the deep past?
0:57:01 > 0:57:05'The scientific investigation is only just beginning
0:57:05 > 0:57:08'it may be years before we have the answer.'
0:57:11 > 0:57:14It is so exciting, and such a privilege,
0:57:14 > 0:57:17to be here with this mammoth as it's unwrapped,
0:57:17 > 0:57:20and to have been with it on its journey,
0:57:20 > 0:57:22as it comes in from the tundra.
0:57:26 > 0:57:30It's a historic moment for Yakutia, for Siberia
0:57:30 > 0:57:32and anybody that's interested in mammoths.
0:57:38 > 0:57:42'Iconic and majestic, mammoths were once a mystery.
0:57:45 > 0:57:48'Now we understand them better, we still revere them.
0:57:52 > 0:57:55'Perfectly adapted, on the inside and out,
0:57:55 > 0:57:58'they withstood the extremes of the Arctic Ice Age,
0:57:58 > 0:58:00'while few other animals could.
0:58:03 > 0:58:06'Genetic and chemical analyses are revealing
0:58:06 > 0:58:08'the secrets of their lifestyles.
0:58:12 > 0:58:16'Long gone from our landscape, we're taking a step closer
0:58:16 > 0:58:19'to bringing back these incredible beasts
0:58:19 > 0:58:22'using the latest techniques in cloning.
0:58:22 > 0:58:27'And this brand new discovery may well take us a step closer
0:58:27 > 0:58:29'to understanding how our own ancestors
0:58:29 > 0:58:32'could have contributed to the extinction
0:58:32 > 0:58:37'of the greatest of all ice age titans, the woolly mammoth.'
0:58:54 > 0:59:03Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd