A Siberian Guy Accidentally Found An Almost Intact Woolly Mammoth Skeleton (Photos)
We bet that he didn't wake up that morning expecting to discover a 10,000 year old woolly mammoth skeleton. But then, life is unpredictable.
Talking about extinct animals, check out these life-size animatronic dinosaurs you can buy. Why? Because you can.
-
1
It's not every day that you accidentally find 10,000 year old remains of extinct mammals that once roamed the Earth, but that's what happened to Konstantin "Kostya" Tadibe when he was following a reindeer herd in northwest Siberia. When he passed by a lake, he spotted something that looked like a bone poking out of the water. It turned out to be the skull of a woolly mammoth.
-
Advertisement
-
2
When scientists reached the site, they realized that there was much more below the surface. As well a woolly mammoth's skull, there was also most of its skeleton, some of its soft tissues (ligaments), wool, and even a piece of its poop. For paleontologists, a discovery like this is about as good as it gets.
-
3
The discovery of these remains was made possible by low water levels in Lake Pechenelava-To. If the water levels remained high, the woolly mammoth, which died at the end of the last ice age, would have stayed unknown to humans.
-
4
But digging woolly mammoth bones out of a lake isn't as easy as you'd think. In order to excavate the bones, researchers built a wooden box around the mammoth's skeleton and then used a sump pump to remove water from around the wooden fort. They were then able to wade through the mud and dig up about 90% of the mammoth's skeleton, as well as ligaments, wool and coprolite (old poop).
-
Advertisement
-
5
According to its remains, scientists can infer that the woolly mammoth was male, was around 6.5 to 8.2 feet tall, and was 15 years old when it died. Although the mammoth was quite large, it's poop was only 2 inches in diameter. But that's enough to reveal information about its diet and intestinal parasites.
-
6
The mammoth's soft tissue remains, which are preserved ligaments (the tissue that connects bones or cartilage at a joint), will allow scientists to study how the mammoths adapted to the freezing temperatures of the ice age. The mammoth's ligaments probably didn't completely decay due to the cold climate of Siberia.
-
7
It's unknown why this male mammoth died, although current evidence doesn't point to it being murdered by humans - unlike another 25,000 year old mammoth that was found with a javelin embedded in its ribs. Male mammoths were more likely to die than female mammoths because they traveled alone and were therefore susceptible to natural traps, such as falling through thin ice or mudflows.
-
Advertisement
-
8
This male woolly mammoth was named the Tadibe mammoth, in honor of the Konstantin "Kostya" Tadibe, the man who accidentally found it. (We think it's pretty cool to have a mammoth named after you.)
-
9
It's likely that as global temperatures continue to rise, permafrost in countries with cold climates like Siberia will melt. Melting permafrost causes mud in lakes to slide into deeper areas of lake basins, exposing things around the edges of lakes. However, the danger of this is that previously preserved specimens are exposed to the elements are begin to decay again.
-
10
Mammoths in mainland Russia went extinct 10,000 years ago (apart from dwarf woolly mammoths), and its likely that we're going to learn a lot more about their lives and deaths as more skeletons of the great creatures are found.
Tags
Next on Home
Hot Today