Paleontologists have unearthed a well-preserved full skeleton of the steppe mammoth that lived 500 thousand years ago.

      The preshistoric inhabitant of Yakutia of the Middle Pleistocene was the ancestor of the woolly mammoth. This find is one of the kind in the entire Northeast Asia.

      This was reported by the head of Mammoth Fauna Department of the Yakutia Academy of Sciences, Albert Protopopov.

      "Very few artifacts of the Middle Pleistocene have been found so far. Thanks to this find the science will establish new facts about that age. Recently we have got lots of evidences to the fact that Yakutia used to have warm climate and different landscape", - the scientists informed.

      The steppe mammoth replaced the southern mammoth the Middle Pleistocene from 750 to 500 thousand years ago. With the shoulder height of up to 4,7 m and its weight reaching 10 tons, it is concerned to be the largest representative of the elephant family of all times. These animals lived in the area of Western Siberia, modern Kazakhstan, the Stavropol Territory and the Krasnodar Territory.