The overall condition of the animal is unknown, even though some fur and flesh was spotted after a small patch of ice was melted with a hair dryer. One scientist involved estimates it will take at least a year just to defrost the carcass, which is still sitting inside a 23-ton piece of ice. Unknown Contents Mammoth remains, in the forms of bones, tusks and teeth, are relatively plentiful, found in much of the northern Hemisphere, the elephant's former habitat. However, DNA is scant or absent in most skeletal remains. The frozen body of a woolly mammoth was found in Russia.
Scientists say there are more to find in places like Siberia and Alaska.
When the frozen mammoth was pulled out last year, expedition leaders suggested the presence of soft tissue would make it possible to clone the extinct animal. Although cloning is no longer science fiction since the world was introduced to Dolly the sheep, the process is still difficult. Scientists created Dolly by removing the genetic material out of an egg cell, replacing it with the nucleus of a cell from the original Dolly, and implanting the egg in a surrogate mother sheep. The 'Humpty Dumpty' Problem Breathing life into the extinct woolly mammoth is an different, possibly impossible operation. During life, the damage to fragile DNA is repaired naturally.