This is Lyuba, the world’s most complete mammoth, in her most tender and comfortable resting place since she was separated from her mother some 42,000 years ago.*
Lyuba was transported in this large, strengthened, padded case from the Shemanovsky Museum in Salechard, Siberia to the Natural History Museum in London, where the one month (plus 42,000 years) old female woolly mammoth calf will be on public display from 23 May until 7 September 2014.
The baby mammoth, measuring 85cm tall and 130cm long, was discovered in Siberia, Russia in May 2007 by reindeer herder Yuri Khudi and his sons whilst searching for wood along the Yuribei River.
*Actually, the cause of Lyuba’s death was asphyxiation. She probably died while trying to follow her mother across a melt water stream. Her body was buried in wet clay and mud, and was frozen, preserving it until emerging from the ice some 40,000 years later.
Pictures: Rob Stothard/Getty Images