Rare mummified mammoth calf found in Canada

Miners in the gold fields of northern Canada have made a startling discovery: A nearly complete mummified woolly mammoth baby! The baby mammoth is believed to have been a tiny 1-month-old female who lived in the region 30,000 years ago.

Miners working in the Klondike Gold Fields in Canada’s Northwest Yukon Territory have made a rare and surprising discovery: the mummified remains of a nearly complete baby woolly mammoth!

According to paleontologists, the baby woolly mammoth found in Canada is one of the most incredible mummified ice age animals ever discovered in the world.

The mummified baby mammoth It was found largely complete when miners excavated permafrost, a type of soil typical of the far north of the planet made up of earth and ice, in the Eureka Creek River near the Alaskan border on June 21. As soon as they realized it was a mummified animal, they notified the Dr. Grant ZazulaYukon government paleontologist.

The native elders of the local village Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in they called the baby mammoth Nun cho ga, meaning “large baby animal”. The discovery was announced by the local government on June 24.

Experts believe that the mammoth is female and died during the ice age, more than 30,000 years ago., when woolly mammoths roamed this region alongside wild horses, cave lions and giant bison. Furthermore, it is believed that the cub was only a month old when he died, probably because he was trapped in the mud.

Scientists who studied the animal were amazed and excited by the state of preservation of the animal’s body, which was almost completely preserved. The nails, the skin, part of the hair, the trunk and even the intestines were practically intact. Paleontologist Grant Zazula said in a statement after the discovery that the little animal “is beautiful and one of the most incredible ice age mummified animals ever discovered in the world.”

The discovery marks the first nearly complete and best-preserved mummified woolly mammoth found in North America. Before her was found a partial mummy of another woolly mammoth calf in 1948 in a gold mine in the state of Alaska, United States, called Effie. OAnother 42,000-year-old mummified mammoth calfknown as Lyubawas also found in Siberia in 2007. According to the Yukon government, Lyuba and Nun cho ga are about the same size.

The successful reclamation of Nun cho ga was made possible through a partnership between the miners, the village Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in and the Yukon Government Department of the Environment, the Yukon Geological Survey, and the Yukon Paleontology Program.

–