Scientists discover new details about life of woolly mammoths

Scientists have uncovered amazing details about the life of a woolly mammoth after its preserved body was found frozen in the snowy wastes of Siberia.

The good condition of the ancient animal has even raised hopes it could be cloned and the team were able to use carbon dating techniques to reveal it had walked the earth around 40,000 years ago.

Dr Tori Herridge, a palaeobiologist at the Natural History Museum who took part in the work, was able to estimate the creature had lived for around 50 years after doing tests on its remaining teeth.

An autopsy of the animal, which was nicknamed Buttercup by scientists, will be shown in a new Channel 4 documentary later this month.