Scientists at the Institute of Applied Ecology of the North, or NEFU, have been searching for mammoth remains amidst the slowly melting permafrost of Northern Siberia. NEFU excavates remains from the Yakutian tundra, stores them at its facilities, and shares samples with research centres around the world. On a recent trip to Siberia, Motherboard visited various mammoth artifact sites around Yakutsk, and met with NEFU head researcher Semyon Grigoriev at the institute's brand new research lab.
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Two high quality woolly mammoth tusks, products of the grey market, on Yakutsk's frozen Lena river next to Motherboard's Ben Makuch. Ksenia Yurganova/VICE
Gray market woolly mammoth tusks are stored amongst boxes in a metal container. Ksenia Yurganova/VICE
Motherboard's Ben Makuch, holding his bottle of Russian vodka and woolly mammoth tusks within the Permafrost Kingdom, an icy underground tourist attraction in Yakutsk where strobe lights illuminate a vodka bar (all right beside the actual remains of prehistoric Ice Age beasts). Igor Kropotov/VICE
The frozen front right leg of Buttercup, a 28,000 year old mammoth excavated near Malo Lyakhovsky Island in Northern Siberia, at the Mammoth Museum lab in Yakutsk. Xavier Aaronson/VICE
The lower jaw portion of a woolly mammoth skull in the storage room of the Russian Academy of Science's Institute of Geology, Diamond and Precious Metals in Yakutsk. Igor Kropotov/VICE
Motherboard's Ben Makuch, holding up an ice-age era bone within the storage room of the Russian Academy of Science's Institute of Geology, Diamond and Precious Metals. Igor Kropotov/VICE
NEFU's Dr. Semen Grigoriev with Motherboard's Ben Makuch, who is holding a fragment of woolly mammoth bone with perfectly preserved bone marrow inside the Institute's storage freezer. Igor Kropotov/VICE
Dr. Semen Grigoriev supervises as Motherboard's Ben Makuch removes tissue samples from the leg of a 28,000 year-old woolly mammoth nicknamed Buttercup. Igor Kropotov/VICE
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The frozen trunk of Buttercup—missing its front tip, but otherwise perfectly preserved. Xavier Aaronson/VICE
A closer look at the tip of Buttercup's trunk, in storage at the lab of the Mammoth Museum in Yakutsk. Xavier Aaronson/VICEOrphan Black returns April 18th 9e/10p on Space. Catch up now.