It should be added that in Yakutia, which is rightfully considered the storehouse of most of the world's unique paleontological finds, the issue of creating a modern infrastructure for storing and studying unique paleontological finds is acute. To this end, the Academy of Sciences of the RS (Ya) is developing a project of the Mammoth World Center, which was included by the Decree of the President of Russia in the strategy for the development of the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation and ensuring national security for the period up to 2035, as well as in a number of other strategic documents of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). In particular, the center was included in the regional state program of scientific and technological development until 2024. The creation of the Mammoth World Center is part of the program of the scientific and educational center "North: Territory of Sustainable Development".
It is assumed that the center will include a scientific laboratory and museum-exposition complexes, a cryopreservation of mammoth fauna, a research ground "Ice Age Park", on the basis of which it is planned to recreate the era of mammoths in natural conditions. It is also planned to create a network of monitoring stations — expeditionary bases in the regional and logistics centers of the Arctic zone of Yakutia.
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The Sakha Republic accounts for up to 90 percent of the paleontological finds of mammoth fauna in the world. There are many unique samples with high preservation of soft tissues that are of great interest to science. The Center can become a platform for legal regulation, certification and monitoring of the extraction of mammoth fauna finds.
Returning to Yuka, we recall that this is one of the most famous mammoths in science. This discovery made it possible to clarify many points related to the life of these animals and make a number of discoveries. So, even during the initial examination, paleontologists found traces of cave lion teeth, that is, Yuka became the first mammoth found to die from cave lion teeth. Also, traces of tools were found on the animal's skin, which confirmed the theory that ancient people hunted mammoths. The real scientific sensation was the news that Yuki's brain was preserved, and even more sensational was the fact that it was extracted almost without damage. So far, this is the first and only such case.
"The fact that Yuka is a boy was reported to us by Swedish colleagues from the genetic center of the Stockholm Museum of Nature, who were studying his genome and stem chromosome genes. Two months ago, our colleague paleogeneticist Love Dallen sent us the results of the research and wrote: "Do you know that Yuka is a boy?" It was a surprise for us, we thought all this time that we were studying a girl," Protopopov said.
Interestingly, earlier a similar gender incident happened to one of the cave lion cubs found in the North of Yakutia. The two kittens that were found in the Aby district were named Boris and Spartak, but later it turned out that one of them was a girl. As a result, Spartak, named after the author of the find, became Sparta.
The high preservation of the mammoth made it possible to make a number of discoveries concerning the morphology of animals, in particular, it was confirmed that woolly mammoths had a thickening on the trunk, thanks to which mammoths could collect snow for drinking in winter when reservoirs froze According to Albert Protopopov, the fact that Yuka is a boy also clarified many things, in particular, why the mammoth was alone at such a young age.
"Mammoths, like elephants, have this habit: the old elephants protect the females, and the males are expelled from the age of six in order to learn how to survive. Such natural selection. Yuka was just 6-7 years old when he died," the scientist says.
But most of all, scientists were surprised by the news that scientists managed to revive Yuki's cells. "Little is known about this to the general public, but it is true: in 2016, our Japanese colleagues who are engaged in mammoth cloning, albeit for a short time, but managed to get Yuki cells to divide," says Albert Protopopov.
The material for the study was taken from the cartilaginous tissue of the trunk, as it turned out later, it is these tissues that are most suitable for cloning, since DNA is best preserved in them.
"When Yuka was found in 2010, the authors of the find Vasily Gorokhov and his sons did the very right thing: they immediately placed the carcass in the cold. That is, the Yuka has never thawed, which ensured good preservation of the tissues. In 2011, he was brought to Yakutsk, and Professor Li Tai from Kinki University (Japan) attended the preparation. For understanding, this is the person who first proposed cloning a mammoth. Since the 90s, he has been looking for suitable material, but could not find it in any way. And then – Yuka. They took some material for research and transplanted them into the eggs of mice. A few years later, in 2016, they wrote to us that 18 of the selected cells came to life and began to divide. Unfortunately, the process stopped, apparently, the cells were still damaged, but the fact itself says that it can be repeated!" – according to the scientist, this, of course, does not guarantee, but inspires some optimism about the possibility of cloning a mammoth.
In the same year, scientists prepared an article for the journal "Nature", but they simply did not believe in such a possibility and refused publication. In 2017, the journal "Science" did the same. And only in 2018 the article was published in the journal "Scientific Reports".
"So today, without exaggeration, Yuka is the best preserved and most sensational mammoth of those found in Yakutia, and in the world. It is possible that these are not the last surprises that he will present to us," Albert Protopopov summed up.
