UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. — Maybe scientists don't jump up and down for joy, but Dr. Dan Fisher did the scientist equivalent of that when he found out that a perfectly preserved baby mammoth had been found in Siberia.
"When you deal with most fossil material, it's bits and pieces — it's things that are in some state of half decomposition," Fisher said. "So to find something this well preserved is itself a scientific mystery and one that we certainly addressed in the work. But yes, it's a really outstanding turn of events."
The examination of the amazing find is the subject of "Waking the Baby Mammoth," which airs Sunday at 7 and 10 p.m. on the National Geographic Channel. It's an engaging two-hour program that recounts the discovery of the astonishingly complete body by reindeer herder Yuri Khudy in northwestern Siberia.
Named Lyuba, after the reindeer herder's wife, the mammoth was a month old when she died — apparently in perfect health — 37,000 years ago. It's only natural that after spending the past 17 years of his life studying mammoths that Fisher would be excited by the find. But it's fascinating even to those of us who just tune in out of curiosity.
The detailed tests demonstrated a lot of things that examining a fossil could never do. "The baby mammoth gave up quite a number of things," Fisher said. "For one thing, we learned that she was in great condition at the time of her death. We found even residues of milk within her intestine — her mother's milk."
And we learn that, like modern elephants, mammoths had a sort of icky way to " inoculate their intestinal tract with cellulose-digesting bacteria.
"More importantly, we were able to validate some of our methods of studying the biology of mammoths, which utilized data from their tusks and teeth to reconstruct the details of their life history and environment. So she was very important for putting our methods on a firmer foundation."
Plus, it's just astonishing to think that they're able to examine the body of a mammoth that died 37,000 years ago the way they might examine the body of an elephant that died at the zoo last week.
CROWN SLIPS AGAIN: So NBC bought a rather original series like "Kings" and announced plans to air it on Thursdays at 9 p.m. after "ER" ended its run.
Then the folks at NBC moved "Kings" to Sundays, a night when it had no chance to succeed. And it didn't.
So after four weeks of bad ratings, NBC execs gave up and announced plans to burn "Kings" off on Saturday nights. But after one week of that — and even more horrible ratings — the show is off the schedule again.
The current plan is to burn off the remaining episodes on Saturdays at 7 p.m., beginning June 13. But don't hold your breath.
WHAT CHANGED? In place of "Kings," NBC will air a "Law & Order: SVU" repeat on Saturday at 7 p.m., on KSL-Ch. 5.
There's a certain irony in that. A decade ago, the management of KSL was at odds with NBC over "SVU," which was originally scheduled in a time slot that the locals thought was entirely too early.
That would have been an 8 p.m. time slot.
Um, the content of "Law & Order: SVU" hasn't gotten any less, um, intense than it was a decade ago. Back when KSL argued forcefully that it was inappropriate fare for an 8 p.m. time slot.
This 7 p.m. repeat features a plot that involves porn production, a serial rapist, on-screen murder victims and a shooting.
Honestly, I think that 7 p.m. on a Saturday night is too early to be airing "SVU." But, at the same time, it's hard to argue that this is a big deal anymore — the USA network airs "SVU" repeats in the afternoon.
That's progress. Of a sort, I guess.
E-mail: pierce@desnews.com