The frozen carcass of a 37,000-year-old baby mammoth unearthed this summer in Siberia has arrived in Japan for tests that researchers hope will shed new light on the internal structure of the ancient beasts.
The 1.2-meter gray-and-brown carcass arrived at Narita International Airport on Saturday afternoon, said Mitsuyoshi Uno, an official with the joint Russo-Japanese mammoth-study project that is overseeing the research.
Discovered in May by a reindeer herder in northern Siberia's remote Yamal-Nenets region, the frozen mammoth's trunk and eyes are virtually intact and it even has some fur, but its tail and ear were apparently bitten off, Russian officials said.
The mammoth, which was initially thought to be about 10,000 years old, is bound for Jikei Medical University in Tokyo, where it will undergo a computed tomography scan, Uno said.
CT scans allow scientists to get three-dimensional pictures so detailed they allow an almost surgical view into the body.
Researchers hope the scan will provide more information about the animal's organs and internal structure.
The mammoth carcass and scan images are slated to go on public display Friday at an office building in central Tokyo, Uno said.
Scientists believe mammoths lived from 4.8 million years to about 4,000 years ago.