A woolly mammoth that lived and died nearly 40,000 years ago has given us a spectacular scientific first, millennia later. From the skin and muscle of a mammoth ( Mammuthus primigenius ) named Yuka, whose remains were exquisitely preserved in the Siberian permafrost, a team of scientists has sequenced ancient RNA nearly three times older than the previous record-holder for ancient RNA – a 14,300-year-old wolf puppy . This is something scientists were unsure was possible. RNA has a notoriously