Yuka (mammoth)

Yuka
Mummified remains
Species Woolly mammoth
Died 39,000 years ago
Siberia
Known for best preserved
Residence Moscow
Weight 5 tonnes
Height 3 m (9 ft 10 in)
External image
Slideshow from Huffington Post
Image from Discovery News

In August 2010, the well-preserved carcass, known as Yuka, of a woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius Blumenbach, 1799) was found along the Oyogos Yar coast approximately 30 kilometers (19 mi) west of the mouth of the Kondratievo River, Siberia (72° 40′ 49.44″ N, 142° 50′ 38.35″) in the region of the Laptev Sea. Yuka is a juvenile female mummy that was found near and named after the village of Yukagir, whose local people discovered it. This mammoth mummy was found as a overhanging ledge about 4 meters (13 ft) above the beach level in a low wave-cut bluff that was about 5 meters (16 ft) high. After its discovery, Yuka spent 2 years stored and preserved in a natural refrigerator, the local permafrost (‘lednik’), at Yukagir. At that time, the first scientists, P. Lazarev and S. Grigoriev, from the Mammoth Museum (Sakha Academy of Sciences, Yakutsk) arrived to study these mummified remains. By then, more than 100 meters (330 ft) of the low bluff had washed away. From Yukagir, the Yuka mammoth was transported to the Sakha Academy of Sciences in Yakutsk.[1][2] In October 2014, This mammoth has been put on display in Moscow and is regarded as being the best preserved Siberian mammoth so far discovered.[3]

The north-facing bluff was composed of loess that comprises part of a rich Late Pleistocene fossil-bearing yedoma exposed by coastal erosion. The yedoma consists of ice-rich silts and silty sand penetrated by large ice wedges, resulting from sedimentation and syngenetic freezing. AMS-dating of a fragment of Yuka's rib from these deposits yielded a radiocarbon date of 34,300+260/−240 14C (GrA-53289). This date corresponds to the termination of the Marine Isotope Stage 3, which is also called the Middle Weichselian, Kargin or Molotkov Interstadial.[1][2]

An analysis of the teeth and tusks determined Yuka to be approximately 6–8 years old when it died. Although it is presumed that this mammoth had most likely been attacked by lions or other predators, evidence that the predators had killed the mammoth was not found. [1][2]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 Rudaya, N., Protopopov, A., Trofimova, S., Plotnikov, V. and Zhilich, S., 2015. Landscapes of the ‘Yuka’ mammoth habitat: A palaeobotanical approach. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology, 214, pp.1-8.
  2. 1 2 3 Maschenko, E., Potapova, O., Boeskorov, G., Agenbroad, L., 2012. Preliminary data on the new partial carcass of the Woolly mammoth, Mammuthus primigenius, from Yakutia, Russia. Abstracts ofthe 72nd Annual SVP Meeting, October 17-20, 2012. p.137.
  3. ↑ "39,000 year-old mammoth goes on display in Russia". BBC News. 29 October 2014.
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