Scientists are attempting to extract cells from a 40,000-year-old horse in hopes of using the sample to clone the extinct species back into existence.

The male baby horse was discovered last month, according to The Siberian Times , in permafrost in Batagaika crater, which residents superstitiously call the "gateway to the underworld." Nearby Yakutsk, a remote city in eastern Siberia, is often cited as being the coldest city in the world .

A team of scientists from South Korea and Russia estimates the foal, called the Lenskaya or Lena horse, was about 20 days old when it died. The species of horse, now extinct, is between 30,000 and 40,000 years old. Thanks to the extremely cold temperatures, the animal's tissue was preserved enough for the scientists to obtain samples.

Semyon Grigoriev, head of the laboratory at the Mammoth Museum, told the Times that the horse was "well-preserved" and a "unique find." There is no damage to the horse's carcass and even its hair is intact – which Grigoriev said is "incredibly rare for such ancient finds."

"Fortunately, the animal's muscle tissues were undamaged and well preserved, so we managed to get samples of this unique find for biotechnology research," Grigoriev said.

Now, scientists are hoping to retrieve a living cell to use to possibly clone the extinct animal. Hwang Woo-Suk, stem cell and cloning researcher from South Korea working on the project, told the Times that once researchers find a cell, they "will do our best to clone the unique animal." In 2004 and 2005, Hwang was revered around the globe for creating human stem cells using cloned embryos. However, it was later revealed that much of his data had been fabricated .

"If we get live cells from this ancient baby horse, it is a wonderful promise to people in terms of cloning," Hwang said.

If the scientists are able to extract live cells, they will make a cloned embryo and implant it into a female horse to carry as a surrogate. Hwang told the Times that modern-day horses are "very close with the ancient one," so there would be no problem getting a "very good choice of eggs" from a modern-day female horse.

The team of scientists is hoping the experiment on the baby horse will give them insight to progress toward their ultimate goal – bringing back the extinct woolly mammoth.