It was August 2018 when scientists discovered a 42,000-year-old mummified foal in the Batagaika crater in Yakutia.
Since its unearthing, several types of research and experiments have been done to study the long-extinct species.
Just recently, the scientists have found out that there is still liquid blood and liquid urine in the foal's prehistoric body.
The ancient horse is said to be a juvenile male of the Lenskaya horse species.
Scientists say that the foal was just a few weeks old when it met its demise. It was then buried in some mud and froze with the animal still fully intact. The scientist explained that the conditions with which the foal was buried are favorable, preserving the juvenile horse perfectly inside and out. This helped scientist to study even its hair and organs, which are usually not possible for prehistoric finds.
The scientists are excited that there was so much blood left in the horse that it is now possible to store, test, and even clone the DNA for the species through what the scientists now call the oldest blood in the world.
Siberian Times reports that their goal is to discover a successful way to go about cloning the ancient DNA. This could be done by using the living species of horses. The Korean mare, to be exact, is the species seen by scientists as a possible surrogate mother for the possible cloning of the foal. They see this as an opportunity that could pave the way to successfully clone DNA of other prehistoric extinct animals such as woolly mammoths.
However, even if this sounds to be a promising endeavor, the scientists have already made 20 attempts to clone the foal but have not succeeded yet. Even so, there are huge implications with what they have researched so far.
Another wave of studies has been started that revolve around the perfectly-preserved organs inside the foal. It seems that scientists have found a treasure chest full of information. This discovery can lead to more discoveries about evolution and even the planet Earth itself.
Scientists are pointing out that more and more species are abruptly leaving the planet for good with a rate that is about 1000 to 10,000 times the natural rate. It is because of this fact that some scientists are looking at different cloning possibilities. However, humanity's knowledge of DNA cloning still has a long journey ahead of it.
