What did a mammoth look like? Difference between mammoth and elephant. Mammoths weren't the only "woolly" mammals in those days

Woolly Mammoth, or Siberian mammoth(lat. Mammuthus primigenius) is an extinct species of the elephant family.

Description

Fragments of a mammoth tusk (Rtishchevsky Museum of History and Local Lore)

The height at the withers of large male mammoths was about 3 meters, and the weight did not exceed 5-6 tons. Females were noticeably smaller than males. The high withers made the silhouette of the animal somewhat hunchbacked.

The entire body of the mammoth was covered with thick fur. The length of the fur on an adult animal on the shoulders, hips and sides reached almost a meter, resulting in a long dewlap that covered the belly and upper part of the limbs like a skirt. The thick, dense undercoat, covered with coarse guard hairs, reliably protected the animal from the cold. The color of the fur varied from brown, almost black in places, to yellow-brown and reddish. The cubs were somewhat lighter in color, with a predominance of yellow-brown and reddish tones. The size of the mammoth was approximately the same as that of modern elephants, but its thick and long hair made its figure more impressive.

The mammoth's head was massive, the top was stretched upward, and on the crown of it was crowned with a “cap” of coarse black hair. The fur-covered ears were small, smaller than those of an Indian elephant. The tail is short, with a brush of long, very stiff and thick black hair at the end. In addition to small ears and thick undercoat, protection from the cold was, according to Academician V.V. Zalensky, the anal valve - a fold of skin under the tail covering the anus. From the skin glands of the mammoth, the sebaceous glands of the skin and the postorbital gland were discovered, with the secretion of which modern elephants mark territory during the breeding season.

The appearance of the mammoth was complemented by huge tusks, which had a peculiar spiral curve. When exiting the jaw, they were directed downward and somewhat to the sides, and their ends were bent inward, towards each other. With age, the curvature of the tusks, especially in males, increased, so that in very old animals their ends almost closed or crossed. The tusks of large males reached a length of 4 m, and their weight reached 110 kg. In females, the tusks were less curved and thinner at the base. The tusks of mammoths from a young age have areas of abrasion, indicating their intensive use. They are located differently than in modern elephants, on the outside of the tusks. It is suggested that with the help of tusks, mammoths raked snow and dug out food from under it, stripped bark from trees, and in snowless cold times, broke out pieces of ice to quench their thirst.

To grind food on each side of the upper and lower jaws at the same time, the mammoth had only one, but very large tooth. The change of teeth occurred in a horizontal direction, the back tooth moved forward and pushed out the worn out front tooth, which was a small remnant of 2-3 enamel plates. During the life of the animal, 6 teeth were successively replaced in each half of the jaw, of which the first three were considered milk teeth, and the last three were considered permanent, molars. When the last of them was completely erased, the animal lost the ability to feed and died.

The chewing surface of mammoth teeth is a wide and long plate covered with transverse enamel ridges. These teeth are highly durable and well preserved, so they are found much more often than other bone remains of the animal.

Compared to modern elephants, the mammoth was slightly shorter-legged. This is due to the fact that it ate mainly pasture, while its modern relatives tend to eat tree branches and leaves, tearing them off high altitude. The mammoth's limbs resembled columns. The soles of the feet were covered with unusually hard keratinized skin 5-6 cm thick, dotted with deep cracks. Over inside On the soles there was a special elastic cushion, which acted as a shock absorber during movement, making the mammoth’s tread light and silent. On the leading edge of the soles there were small nail-like hooves, 3 on the forelimbs and 4 on the hind limbs. From exposure wet soil In the coastal tundra-steppe, the hooves grew and, taking on ugly forms, clearly interfered with the mammoths. Track diameter large mammoth reached almost half a meter. The animal’s legs, thanks to its enormous weight, exerted great pressure on the ground, so mammoths avoided sticky and swampy places whenever possible.

Spreading

The famous Russian paleontologist A.V. Sher put forward a hypothesis that the homeland of the woolly mammoth was the northeast of Siberia (Western Beringia). The most ancient remains (about 800 thousand years ago) of this type of mammoth are known from the valley of the Kolyma River, from where it subsequently spread to Europe and, as it became stronger, ice age, to North America.

Habitats and lifestyle

The lifestyle and habitats of mammoths cannot yet be convincingly reconstructed. However, by analogy with modern elephants, it can be assumed that mammoths were herd animals. This is confirmed by paleontological finds. In a herd of mammoths, just like elephants, there was a leader, most likely an old female. The males held on separate groups or alone. Probably, during seasonal migrations, mammoths united in huge herds.

Vast areas of tundra-steppes were heterogeneous in the productivity of biotopes. Most likely, the places richest in food were river valleys and lake basins. There were thickets of tall grasses and sedges. In hilly areas, mammoths could feed mainly on the bottom of valleys, where there were more dwarf willow and birch shrubs. Huge number consumed food suggests that mammoths, like modern elephants, led an active lifestyle and often changed their habitat.

Apparently, in the warm season the animals fed mainly on herbaceous vegetation. In the frozen guts of two mammoths that died in warm weather, sedges and grasses (especially cotton grass) predominated; lingonberry bushes, green mosses and thin shoots of willow, birch, and alder were found in small quantities. The contents of the stomach of one of the mammoths filled with food weighed about 250 kg. It can be assumed that in winter time, especially in snowy conditions, in the diet of mammoths great value acquired shoots of trees and shrubs.

The discoveries of mummies of baby mammoths - mammoths - have somewhat expanded the understanding of the biology of these animals. Now we can assume that the mammoth calves were born in early spring, their body was completely covered with thick hair. By the time winter arrived, they had already grown noticeably and were able to perform long hikes together with adults, for example, migrating south in late autumn.

Of the predators, the most dangerous for mammoth calves were cave lions. It is possible that a sick or distressed animal also became a victim of wolves or hyenas. No one could threaten healthy adult mammoths, and only with the advent of active human hunting for mammoths did they become constantly in danger.

Extinction

There are several theories about the extinction of woolly mammoths, but the exact reasons for their death remain a mystery. The extinction of mammoths probably occurred gradually and not simultaneously in different parts their huge range. As living conditions worsened, the habitat of animals narrowed and was split into small areas. The number of animals decreased, the fertility of females decreased and the mortality of young animals increased. It is very likely that mammoths became extinct earlier in Europe and somewhat later in northeastern Siberia, where natural conditions did not change so dramatically. 3-4 thousand years ago, mammoths finally disappeared from the face of the earth. The last mammoth populations survived longest in northeastern Siberia and on Wrangel Island.

Finds on the territory of the Rtishchevsky district

Part of a mammoth jaw. Found in the vicinity of the village of Elan in 1927. Serdobsk Local Lore Museum

In the territory of the present Rtishchevsky district, bones, teeth and tusks of mammoths were often found.

In 2009, mammoth bones were found in the eroded bank of the Iznair River near the village of Zmeevki.

On September 9 of this year, in the Kalinov ravine near the village of Elan, archaeologists discovered the humerus of the front leg of a mammoth. The length of the bone is 80 cm, in diameter - 17 cm and in circumference - 44.4 cm. Here, during the spring flood of the year, the peasant M. T. Tareev found a well-preserved mammoth tusk. The length of the tusk was more than two meters, weight - about 70 kg. These finds are kept in the collections of the Serdob Local History Museum.

In the early 1970s, near the village named after Maxim Gorky, mammoth bones were discovered. According to eyewitnesses, they were discovered by a fifth grade student at Shilo-Golitsynskaya high school Sasha Gurkin. As a result of excavations, vertebrae, shoulder blades, shin bones, ribs and a piece of tusk were extracted from the clayey slope of a deep ravine. The remaining parts of the skeleton could not be found. Next to the bones of an adult animal, a fibula was found, clearly belonging to a cub.

The Rtishchevsky Museum of History and Local Lore contains parts of a mammoth's tusk and teeth.

Literature

• Izotova M. A. History of the study of archaeological monuments of the Rtishchevsky district of the Saratov region. - P. 236
• Kuvanov A. Into the depths of centuries (From the series of essays “Rtishchevo”) // Lenin’s Path. - December 15, 1970. - P. 4
• Oleynikov N. From time immemorial // Lenin’s Path. - May 22, 1971. - P. 4
• Tikhonov A. N. Mammoth. - M. - St. Petersburg: Partnership scientific publications KMK, 2005. - 90 p. (Series “Animal Diversity”. Issue 3)

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A message about mammoths, grade 5, will briefly tell you about the giant animals that inhabited our planet during the glaciation period. Also, a report on mammoths can be used while preparing for a lesson or writing an essay on a given topic.

Brief message about mammoths

Mammoths(or they were also called northern woolly elephants) are an extinct group of animals that lived on our planet a very long time ago, during a period of total cooling, about 1.6 million years ago.

The word "mammoth" is of Tatar origin: the term "mamma" means "earth". It is likely that this origin is due to the fact that since time immemorial people have found surviving bones of giants in the ground. For example, the ancient inhabitants of the North thought that mammoths lived underground like moles.

Appearance of mammoths

The main species of these giant animals rarely exceeded modern elephants in size. Thus, the North American subspecies of mammoths reached a height of 5 m with a weight of 12 tons. dwarf species mammoths were no higher than 2m and weighed up to 900 kg. Unlike elephants, mammoths had a massive body, short legs, long curved tusks and long hair. Animals used their tusks to obtain food for themselves in winter, picking it out from under the thick snow. The molars had numerous, thin dentin-enamel plates that helped chew rough plant food.

Where did mammoths live?

Mammoths lived in Europe, Asia, Africa and North America. Paleontological excavations by scientists have shown that the animals led a nomadic lifestyle and constantly moved from one place to another, moving in the direction of glacial drift. In Europe, in harsh snowy winters, mammoths roamed the territory of modern Crimean peninsula and coast Mediterranean Sea. They inhabited cold, little snow-covered and dry steppes.

What did mammoths eat?

Since mammoths lived during the Ice Age, their diet consisted of scanty vegetation. When examining the found animals, remains of larch and pine twigs, wild caraway and sedge leaves, fir cones, flowers and moss were found in their stomachs.

Why did mammoths become extinct?

Paleontologists believe that humans caused the disappearance of mammoths. They were the first creatures to suffer such a sad fate. The body of the giants was covered with thick, long and warm hair, which most likely attracted an ancient man who was looking for a way to warm himself in the cold and insulate his home. People also hunted them for their tasty, fatty and nutritious meat. Therefore, living mammoths were only seen primitive people, which caused the death of these animals.

• Modern naturalists were lucky enough to study these animals thanks to paleontological excavations, during which it was possible to find not only animal skeletons, but also entire frozen carcasses. Thus, in 1901, the so-called Berezovsky mammoth was discovered. His effigy is kept in Zoological Museum St. Petersburg. Its body is covered with fur, 35 cm long. Underneath it, scientists discovered a soft and warm undercoat, subcutaneous fat, which was located on the shoulders. There were remains of undigested food in the mammoth's stomach.
• In 1977 at the mouth Siberian river Dima found a small mammoth, whose age is 44 thousand years.
• Mammoths had a hump on their back, like camels, where they stored fat reserves.
• Every day the mammoth needed 180 kg of food to maintain health. An African elephant, for example, eats 300 kg of food.
• The giants' ears were smaller than those of modern elephants. This is due to the cold climate.
• The mammoth, from 30,000 to 12,000 years ago, was the most popular subject of Neolithic artists. He was depicted on rocks in caves Western Europe. For example, cave paintings with mammoths can be seen in France in the Roufignac cave.

We hope that the report on mammoths helped to learn about the first living creatures whose extinction was caused by man. A short story You can leave information about mammoths using the comment form below.

Niramin - Jun 5th, 2016

Elephants and mammoths share a common ancestor, the paleomastodon, which inhabited Africa about 36 million years ago. This may be why elephants and mammoths have many similarities.

For 5 million years, mammoths lived quietly on many continents, disappearing from the face of the Earth only 10 - 12 thousand years ago. Their remains are found not only in Eurasia, but also in North and South America.

Distant relatives of mammoths, elephants are the remnants of a large family of proboscideans that inhabited our planet in the distant past. These huge animals live in Africa, South and Southeast Asia.

African in appearance and indian elephant They look very similar. However, huge representatives of African shrouds are much larger than their Asian relatives. The maximum weight of an African elephant reaches more than 7 tons, and its height at the withers is about 4 meters. At the same time, the Indian elephant can have a maximum weight of about 5 tons, and at the withers up to 3 meters. The shaggy relatives of modern elephants, mammoths, were much larger. Their height at the withers reached 5 meters; their huge tusks, twisted in the form of a spiral, were the same length. With the help of tusks, mammoths were able to resist predators, and thick long hair protected these animals from low temperatures during the ice age. Scientists are still looking for the cause of the mass extinction of mammoths. Some consider ancient man to be guilty, who intensively exterminated these animals, others are inclined to the version of the emergence of a new ice age, caused by the fall of a South American meteorite.

Like modern elephants, mammoths ate plant foods. But unlike their modern relatives, mammoths had to eat sparse tundra vegetation. Many paleontologists claim that baby mammoths also ate their parents' droppings in order to replenish their stomachs with the bacteria necessary for normal digestion.

Elephants have a more varied diet than their long-extinct relatives. They use leaves, branches, shoots, fruits, bark and roots of trees and shrubs as food.

And if ancient man used the mammoth as a hunting object, eating its meat and later processing its skins, then modern elephants local residents learned to tame and use them as helpers on the farm. This is especially true of Indian elephants, which are easy to train and become attached to their owner for a long time.

Mammoths and elephants - see pictures and photos:

Evolution of proboscideans.

Photo: African elephant.

Photo: Indian elephant.

Mammoth, African elephant and man.

Mammoth.

Every year in the glaciers Northern Europe and Siberia, scientists are finding more and more bones, tusks and teeth of mammoths. Such discoveries do not allow discussions about the reasons for the extinction of these ancient mammals to cool down.


Experts put forward many different hypotheses, but so far none of them have been confirmed. What could have led to their death? Why did the mammoth fauna become extinct?

When did mammoths live?

It is well known that the first mammoths appeared in the Pliocene era (about 5.3 million years ago) and existed until about the 7th millennium BC. Most of them had sizes similar to those of modern elephants, but were among the animals as quite large species, reaching a height of 5 meters, and small ones, growing only 2 meters.

The main differences between mammoths and elephants were the presence of dense hair and long curved tusks, which helped them get food in winter.

The main habitats of mammoths were North America, Africa, Europe and Asia. Most often, researchers find only their individual bones, but in Siberia and Alaska there are known cases of discovering entire corpses that have managed to be well preserved to this day in permafrost conditions.

When did mammoths go extinct?

Most of the mammoths died about 10,000 years ago, when globe The so-called Vistula Ice Age reigned. He was the last in a line ice ages and ended around 9600 BC.


It is noteworthy that in addition to mammoths, 34 more genera of mammals disappeared at the same time, including big horned deer and woolly rhinoceros. The extinction was accompanied by climate change and the transformation of tundra-steppes into modern forest-tundra and swampy-tundra biotas.

Why did mammoths become extinct?

Scientists have been arguing about the reasons for the extinction of mammoths for many decades. The most different versions, even quite exotic ones, such as the fall of a comet and a large-scale epidemic.

Most of the assumptions are not supported by other experts, but today there are, according to at least, two hypotheses that may well explain the disappearance of animals. It is believed that mammoths could have become victims of Upper Paleolithic hunters or died as a result sudden change climate.

Extermination of mammoths by hunters

The version about hunters was proposed by the British naturalist Alfred Wallace back in late XIX centuries. The scientist believed that it was the hunting of mammoths that caused their complete extermination. Wallace's conclusions were based on the discovery of an ancient human site that contained a huge accumulation of mammal bones.

It is believed that approximately 32 thousand years ago people settled in the north of Eurasia, and 15 thousand years ago they reached North America and began to actively obtain food by hunting. Of course, they could not completely destroy the entire species, but in this they were “helped” by global warming, which came after the Ice Age and led to a reduction mammoth fauna.

Mammoth extinction due to climate change

Supporters of the hypothesis believe that the role of humans in the disappearance of mammoths is greatly overestimated. In their opinion, mass extinction began long before the appearance of people in territories inhabited by mammals. In addition, in addition to mammoths, 10 thousand years ago many other animals died, which ancient people did not hunt.

Thus, human intervention plays a secondary role, and main reason extinction is called global warming and a reduction in food used by mammoths for food.

The latest study conducted by scientists at the California Institute of California in 2012 showed that over the past 30 thousand years of mammoth existence, their number has changed several times. With the onset of warmth approximately 40 thousand years ago, the population increased, and with the advent of cold weather 25 thousand years ago it decreased.


Due to the colder weather, most of the animals were forced to migrate from Northern Siberia to warmer southern regions, but even there the grassy steppes were soon replaced by forests. As a result, due to lack of nutrition, the mammoth fauna decreased significantly, and subsequently completely disappeared from the face of the Earth.

In Yakutia, a significant part of all the unique finds of mammoths, woolly rhinoceroses, bison, musk oxen, cave lions and other animals of a bygone era.

Map of mammoth finds

The first modified representative of the southern elephants was the steppe mammoth (height at withers - up to 5 m). The steppe mammoth in the early Pleistocene era still tried to fight the cold, migrating south in winter and north in summer. A subspecies of the steppe mammoth - the Khazar mammoth - became the ancestor of the woolly mammoth. According to the great Russian researcher of fossils and modern elephants V.E. Garutta, the word "mammoth" is closer to the Estonian "mammut" (underground mole). The mammoth population appeared 1 - 2 million years ago. The development of these giants flourished at the end of the Pleistocene (100 - 10 thousand years ago). On the territory of Yakutia, in the lower reaches of the interfluve between the Indigirka and Kolyma rivers, the skull of a mammoth that lived 49 thousand years ago was found. This is the oldest mammoth found in Yakutia.

Woolly Mammoth

Woolly Mammoth

The woolly mammoth is the most exotic animal of the Ice Age and is its symbol. Real giants, mammoths at the withers reached 3.5 m and weighed 4 - 6 tons. Mammoths were protected from the cold by thick, long hair with developed undercoat, which was more than a meter long on the shoulders, hips and sides, as well as a layer of fat up to 9 cm thick. 12 - 13 thousand years ago, mammoths lived throughout Northern Eurasia and a large part of North America . Due to climate warming, the habitats of mammoths - the tundra-steppe - have decreased. Mammoths migrated to the north of the continent and for the last 9-10 thousand years lived on a narrow strip of land along the Arctic coast of Eurasia, which is currently mostly flooded by the sea. The last mammoths lived on Wrangel Island, where they became extinct about 3,500 years ago. Mammoths are herbivores and ate mainly herbaceous plants(cereals, sedges, forbs), small shrubs (dwarf birches, willows), tree shoots and moss. In winter, in order to feed themselves, in search of food, they raked snow with their forelimbs and extremely developed upper incisor tusks, the length of which in large males was more than 4 meters, and they weighed about 100 kg. Mammoth teeth were well adapted for grinding rough food. Each of the 4 teeth of a mammoth changed five times during its life. A mammoth usually ate 200-300 kg of vegetation per day, i.e. he had to eat 18-20 hours a day and constantly move around in search of new pastures.

The hunt of ancient people for mammoth

Mammoth hunting

Ancient people were well adapted to the cold conditions of the Ice Age: they knew how to make fire, made tools, and buried their dead fellow tribesmen. Thanks to mammoths, the rulers of the northern circumpolar steppes and tundras, ancient man survived in harsh conditions: they gave him food and clothing, shelter, and shelter from the cold. Thus, mammoth meat, subcutaneous and abdominal fat were used for nutrition; for clothing - skins, sinews, wool; for the manufacture of dwellings, tools, hunting equipment and handicrafts - tusks and bones. Usually only the most experienced hunters (4 - 5 people) went to hunt mammoths. The leader chose a victim (a pregnant female or a lonely male), then spears were thrown at the right or left side of the mammoth. The pursuit of the wounded animal lasted 5 - 7 days. As the climate changed, mammoths moved further east and north. According to researchers, perhaps it was these migrations of animals that served as the impetus for the first hunters to move to northern Asia.

One of the hypotheses for the reasons for the disappearance of mammoths

To clarify the reasons for the disappearance of representatives of the mammoth fauna, many different hypotheses were put forward, including cosmic radiation, infectious diseases, global flood, natural disasters. Today, most scientists are inclined to believe that the main reason was rapid warming climate at the boundary of the Pleistocene and Holocene. About 10 thousand years ago, a kind of environmental catastrophe occurred on Earth: the climate suddenly began to “warm”, glaciers began to retreat and the area occupied by permafrost began to shrink. On the territory of Yakutia, the severity of winter and southern border permafrost remained unchanged, although in general the climate and ice conditions were milder than modern ones. Researchers note that mammoths, accustomed to living in cold climates, may have had their physiological metabolism disrupted during the warming period; they have become less resistant to infectious diseases, which led to the degradation of their populations. Thus, organisms close to helminths were discovered in the soft tissues of the head of the Yukagir mammoth. There are known cases of bone and dental diseases (dental caries, tusks with abnormal painful shapes). The onset of climate warming also greatly affected the regime atmospheric precipitation and on vegetation.

Mammoth. Siegsdorfer Mammut

More precipitation began to fall, and sea levels rose. The former Arctic steppe began to be replaced by tundra, and in Southern and Central Yakutia - by taiga. Neither the tundra nor the taiga could feed such large herbivores as mammoths. In winter it began to fall out more snow, heavy snowfalls made it difficult for the mammoths to survive. And in the summer the soils thawed and became swampy. Animals accustomed to moving on relatively hard surfaces could not exist in swampy areas. All this led to their mass death. They died in snow drifts, suffered from lack of food, and drowned in thermokarst traps - caves. Education is likely related to these factors Berelekh cemetery mammoths in Eastern Yakutia, where, according to scientists, about 160 individuals died.

About the history of mammoth finds

Bony remains of mammoths have been found in Yakutia, as well as throughout Russia, for a long time. The first information about such finds was reported by the Amsterdam burgomaster Witsen in 1692 in “Notes on a trip to North-Eastern Siberia" Somewhat later, in 1704, Izbrant Ides wrote about Siberian mammoths, who, on the orders of Peter I, traveled through all of Siberia to China. In particular, he was the first to collect quite interesting information that in Siberia, local residents on the banks of rivers and lakes from time to time found whole mammoth carcasses. In 1720, Peter the Great handed over to the governor of Siberia A.M. Cherkassky received an oral decree to search for the “intact skeleton” of the mammoth. The territory of Yakutia accounts for about 80% of all finds of mammoth remains in the world and other fossil animals with preserved soft tissues.

Adams' Mammoth

Having gone to the place, he discovered the skeleton of a mammoth, eaten wild animals and dogs. The skin was preserved on the mammoth's head; one ear, dried eyes and brain also survived, and on the side on which it lay there was skin with thick long hair. Thanks to the dedicated efforts of the zoologist, the skeleton was delivered to St. Petersburg that same year. So, in 1808, for the first time in the world, a complete skeleton of a mammoth was mounted - Adams' mammoth. Currently, he, like the baby mammoth Dima, is on display at the museum of the Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg.

Adams' Mammoth in the mountains. Saint Petersburg

This remarkable find was later called the “Adams Mammoth.” One of sensational finds, received worldwide fame, was the carcass of the Berezovsky mammoth. His burial was discovered in 1900 on the bank of Berezovka (the right tributary of the Kolyma River) by hunter S. Tarabukin. The mammoth's head with skin was exposed in an earthen collapse, and in places it was chewed by wolves. The St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, having received news of the unique discovery of a mammoth in Yakutia, immediately equipped an expedition led by zoologist O.F. Hertz. As a result of excavations, an almost complete mammoth carcass was removed from the frozen soil in parts. The Berezovsky mammoth had a huge scientific significance, because an almost complete mammoth carcass fell into the hands of researchers for the first time. Judging by the presence of remains of unchewed bunches of herbs found in oral cavity, teeth, the estimated time of death of the mammoth is the end of summer. Based on the results of research on the Berezovsky mammoth, several volumes of scientific papers were published.

Berezovsky mammoth

In 1910, the remains of a mammoth corpse, found in 1906 by A. Gorokhov on the Eterikan River, on Bol Island, were excavated. Lyakhovsky. This mammoth has an almost complete skeleton, fragments of soft tissue on the head and other parts of the body, as well as hair and remains of stomach contents. K.A. Vollosovich, who excavated the mammoth, sold it to Count A.V. Stenbock-Fermor, who in turn donated it to the Paris Museum of Natural History. Interest in the finds of mammoths and other fossil animals especially increased after the President of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Academician V.L. In 1932, Komarov signed an appeal to the population of the country “On the Findings of Fossil Animals.” The appeal stated that the Academy of Sciences would issue monetary reward up to 1000 rubles.

Berelekh Mammoth Cemetery

In 1970, a huge accumulation of bone remains, belonging to approximately 160 mammoths that lived 13 thousand years ago. Nearby was the dwelling of ancient hunters. In terms of the quantity and quality of preserved fragments of mammoth bodies, the Berelekh cemetery is the largest in the world. It testifies to the mass death of those weakened and caught in snow drift animals.

Berelekh Mammoth Cemetery. Yakutia

Currently, paleontological materials from the Berelekh cemetery are stored at the Institute of Diamond Geology and noble metals SB RAS in the city. Yakutsk.

Shandri Mammoth

In 1971, D. Kuzmin discovered the skeleton of a mammoth that lived 41 thousand years ago on the right bank of the Shandrin River, which flows into the channel of the Indigirka River delta. Inside the skeleton was a frozen lump of entrails. Plant remains consisting of herbs, branches, shrubs, and seeds were found in the gastrointestinal tract.

Shandri Mammoth. Yakutia

So, thanks to this, one of the five unique remains of the contents of the gastrointestinal tract of mammoths (section size 70x35 cm), it was possible to determine the diet of the animal. The mammoth was a large male, 60 years old, and apparently died of old age and physical exhaustion. The skeleton of the Shandrin mammoth is located at the Institute of History and Philosophy of the SB RAS.

Mammoth Dima

At a mammoth excavation. Yakutia

In 1977, a well-preserved 7-8 month old mammoth calf was discovered in the Kolyma River basin. It was a touching and sad sight for the prospectors who discovered the baby mammoth Dima (he was named after the spring of the same name, in the valley of which he was found): he was lying on his side with mournfully outstretched legs, with his eyes closed and his trunk slightly crumpled.

Mammoth Dima

The find immediately became a world sensation due to its excellent preservation and possible reason death of a baby mammoth. The poet Stepan Shchipachev composed touching poem about a baby mammoth who fell behind his mother, a mammoth, and an animated film was made about the unfortunate baby mammoth.

Yukagir mammoth

In 2002, near the Muksunuokha River, 30 km from the village of Yukagir, schoolchildren Innokenty and Grigory Gorokhov found the head of a male mammoth. In 2003 - 2004 the remaining parts of the corpse were excavated.

Head of a Yukaghir mammoth. Yakutsk

The best preserved head is with tusks, with most of skin, left ear and eye socket, as well as the left front leg, consisting of the forearm and with muscles and tendons. Of the remaining parts, cervical and thoracic vertebrae, part of the ribs, shoulder blades, the right humerus, part of the viscera, and wool were found.