Researchers at a Tokyo medical school load the world's best preserved woolly mammoth into a CT-scanning machine normally used on humans.

Completed by February 2008, the resulting 3-D images show no damage to the Ice Age calf's skeleton. And healthy fat tissues suggest she was in good shape when she died—likely by drowning in a river or a lake, Russian biologist Alexei Tikhonov said.

This is really the first case where we can see the internal structure of an extinct animal," Tikhonov added.

• More Photos in the News
• Today's Top 15 Most Popular Stories
• Free Email Newsletter: "Focus on Photography"