Scientists in Siberia have found the first ever well-preserved sample of blood from a woolly mammoth, which could be used to recreate the extinct species.

The 10,000-year-old blood was sealed inside ice beneath the carcass of a female mammoth.

Preserved muscle tissue was also found from the creature, aged between 50 and 60 when she died, according to the Russian team who made the discovery on islands off the northern coast of Siberia.

According to The Siberian Times, the blood will now be made available to South Korean scientists seeking to use mammoth DNA to bring creatures back to life.

The find – said to be the first time mammoth blood has been discovered – comes amid a hotly contested debate over the morality of Jurassic Park-style projects to restore extinct creatures to the planet, with some scientists insisting it will be impossible to get exactly the same mammoths as once roamed Siberia.

The mammoth was found in an ice tomb in the New Siberian Islands, or NovosibirskIslands, and parts of the carcass are especially well preserved because they remained entirely frozen for 10,000 years.

The samples have been taken for study to Yakutsk, capital of the Republic of Sakha, also known as Yakutia, the largest region in the Russian Federation.

The carcass weighing around one tonne has been moved to the Siberian mainland and is being kept in a ice storage.

The eventual plan is to plant an implanted egg into a live elephant for a 22-month pregnancy.

Earlier this year a group of scientists from around the world met for TEDx conference in Washington, sponsored by National Geographic.

The group were discussing the possibility of bringing 24 animals back from extinction, also known as ‘de-extinction’.