A 40,000-year-old baby woolly mammoth specimen found on Russia's Yamal Peninsula is being insured for 1 million euros ($1.47 million) before going on an international museum tour, AlfaStrakhovanie Group said on Monday.
Known as Lyuba, the 50-kg (110-pound) female mammoth will be the star attraction at Chicago's Field Museum from March 2010. The Mammoths and Mastodons: Titans of the Ice Age exhibit will then go on a 10-city tour that ends at London's Natural History Museum in 2014.
Lyuba is usually on display at the regional museum in Salekhard in the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Area, where she was discovered by reindeer herders in 2007. The unique specimen is currently undergoing preservation works at the Russian Academy of Sciences' Zoological Institute in St. Petersburg that will allow her to be displayed without refrigeration.
Scientists estimate the baby mammal was about a month old when she died after getting stuck in mud on a riverbank. The carcass was remarkably well-preserved, with eyes and trunk almost intact and even some fur remaining on its skin.
Mammoths, giant mammals known for their furry coats, huge tusks and massive bulk, are thought to have appeared some 4.8 million years ago and be close relatives of modern-day elephants.
While most woolly mammoths died out approximately 12,000 years ago, its dwarf version survived on Russia's Wrangel Island, located in the Arctic Ocean, up until 1700 BC.
Well-preserved mammoth remains have been found all across Siberia.
MOSCOW, December 14 (RIA Novosti)
