(ORDO NEWS) — While working to find gold, a worker at a gold mining company came across the mummy of a baby woolly mammoth that died about 35,000 years ago.
An amazing find was discovered during the excavation of permafrost in the Klondike region, known for its gold deposits, in the Yukon Territory in northwestern Canada.
This baby mammoth is slightly larger than another known baby mammoth mummy discovered in Siberia in 2007 and is the most complete mammal mummy in North America.
A gold mining company employee discovered the mummy of a baby mammoth while searching for deposits of the precious metal in an area with a very appropriate name – Eureka Creek.
After the discovery became known to scientists, they immediately went to the excavation site and managed to remove the remains of the animal before a storm swept over the region with heavy rain and a thunderstorm.
“This is truly an incredible find. This is one of the finest Ice Age animal mummies ever found in the world and it is definitely the most intact mammal mummy in North America.
If we had not had time to remove this mummy of a baby woolly mammoth from the ground in time, then it would definitely have suffered greatly from the downpour, ”says Canadian paleontologist Grant Zazula.
According to the scientist, the ideally preserved mummy of a female cub is about 35 thousand years old.
“This is an incredible level of preservation of the mummy. She’s just perfect.
The body, tail, ears and even the trunk are well preserved. I think this is the most important discovery in North American paleontology,” says Zazula.
A thorough examination of the body of the animal showed that most of the skin and wool were preserved in their original form.
“I believe that this baby mammoth was a little over a month old when he died.
Its body length is 140 centimeters, which is slightly larger than the size of the mummy of a baby woolly mammoth, which was discovered in Siberia in 2007, ”says Zazula.
Scientists have found the remains of grass in the animal’s stomach. Therefore, the researchers came to the conclusion that before his death, the mammoth grazing in the local pasture.
Most likely, the animal could not get out of the mud and died. Then the body mummified and froze during the Ice Age.
“This baby mammoth wandered around here in search of food, but for some reason fell into a trap from which he could not get out. I think that death came very, very quickly,” says Zazula.
According to the scientist, ahead of him are weeks, and maybe months, which will be used to study the found mummy of a baby mammoth.
As for the Klondike region, it became famous thanks to the “gold rush” at the end of the 19th century. Then, within 2 years, about 100 thousand people went to the north of Canada.
Only 40,000 made it to their destination and only 4,000 managed to find gold here. Although gold mining companies are still finding gold deposits under the permafrost.
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