Frozen Mammoths General Description
What Is Found. Since 1800, at least 11 scientific expeditions have excavated fleshy remains of extinct mammoths.9 Most fleshy remains were buried in the permafrost of northern Siberia, inside the Arctic Circle. The remains of six mammoths have been found in Alaska. Only a few complete carcasses have been discovered. Usually, wild animals had eaten the exposed parts before scientists arrived.
If we look in the same region for frozen soft tissue of other animals, we learn that several rhinoceroses have been found, some remarkably preserved. (Table 8 on page 253 summarizes 57 reported mammoth and rhinoceros discoveries.) Other fleshy remains come from a horse,10 a young musk ox,11 a wolverine,12 voles,13 squirrels, a bison,14 a rabbit, and a lynx.15
Table 8. Reports of Frozen Mammoths and Rhinoceroses
(description pertains to mammoths unless stated otherwise.)
# ..... Date ..... Name ........... Description ................................................................. Referencece
1 ..... 1693 ..... Ides ........... frozen head and lege ........................................................ Ides, 25–27
2 ..... 1723 ..... Messerschmidt .. frozen head and big pieces of skin with long hair ........................... Breyne, 138
3 ..... 1739 ..... Laptev ......... several rhinoceros heads .................................................... T, 22
4 ..... 1771 ..... Pallas ......... complete rhinoceros; suffocated; hairy head and two feet recovered .......... Eden;17 H, 44, 82, 184
5 ..... 1787 ..... Sarychev ....... complete when first seen; upright ........................................... H, 82–83; T, 23
6 ..... 1800 ..... Potapov ........ on the shores of the Polar Sea; skin and hair recovered ..................... T, 25
7 ..... 1805 ..... Adams .......... complete when first seen; 70 year old male; upright ......................... T, 23–25; H, 83–85
8 ..... 1839 ..... Trofimov ....... complete; in a river bank; hair, bones, pieces of flesh and brain recovered . H, 85; T, 26
9 ..... 1843 ..... Middendorff .... half-grown mammoth; most of the flesh had decayed, eyeball recovered ........ H, 85–86; Eden, 104
10 .... 1845 ..... Khitrof ........ well preserved when found; food between teeth ............................... H, 86
11 .... 1846 ..... Benkendorf ..... complete; upright; see page ................................................. HD, 32–38; D, 97–103
12 .... 1847 ..... Goodridge ...... AK; a skull with a quantity of hair ......................................... Maddren, 18
13 .... 1854 ..... Khitrovo ....... foot covered with hair; from a mammoth in good condition .................... T, 27
14 .... 1858 ..... Vilui .......... rhinoceros; complete skeleton with some ligaments ........................... T, 27
15 .... 1860 ..... Boyarski ....... upright; in the face of an island’s coastal cliff ........................... T, 32
16 .... 1861 ..... Golubef ........ a huge beast covered with skin; in a river bank ............................. H, 86
17 .... 1864 ..... Schmidt-1 ...... PC; only skin and hair recovered a year later ............................... T, 28; D, 108–110
18 .... 1865 ..... Koschkarof ..... PC; largely decomposed a year later ......................................... H, 86–87
19 .... 1866 ..... Schmidt-2 ...... recovered on a lake shore; bones and hair of various lengths ................ T, 28; P, 8
20 .... 1866 ..... Kolesov ........ large mammoth or rhinoceros, covered with skin .............................. T, 27
21 .... 1866 ..... Bunge-1 ........ pieces of skin and plenty of hair ........................................... T, 32
22 .... 1869 ..... Von Maydell-1 .. PC; upright; three years later, only a large hairy hide recovered ........... D, 80–95; H, 87–89
23 .... 1869 ..... Von Maydell-2 .. PC; only two legs found a year later ........................................ D, 80–95; H, 87–89
24 .... 1870 ..... Von Maydell-3 .. PC; only a leg was recovered three years later .............................. D, 80–95; H, 87–89
25 .... 1876 ..... Nordenskiold ... inch-thick hide near skull of a musk sheep .................................. Nordenskiold, 310; H, 89
26 .... 1877 ..... Von Schrenck ... complete rhinoceros; the head was thoroughly studied; apparent suffocation .. H, 89; T, 30–31
27 .... 1879 ..... Bunge-2 ........ tusks chopped off; reported to authorities four years later ................. T, 31
28 .... 1884 ..... Bunge-3 ........ PC; first seen by natives 27 years earlier; 2 inch thick skin claimed ..... T, 16, 31
29 .... 1886 ..... Toll-1 ......... 23 years after natives’ discovery, a few soft parts and hair were recovered . T, 32
30 .... 1889 ..... Burimovitch .... reportedly complete; Toll’s bad health prevented him from reaching the site . T, 33
31 .... 1893 ..... Toll-2 ......... damaged bones, hairy skin, and other hair ................................... T, 33
32 .... 1894 ..... Dall ........... AK; disintegrated muscle tissue, bones, and 300 pounds of fat ............... Dall, 19
33 .... 1901 ..... Pfizenmayer .... rhinoceros; a few fragments of ligaments and other soft parts ............... P, 53–54; T, 35
34 .... 1901 ..... Berezovka ...... almost complete; upright; late summer death ................................. HE, 611–625; D, 111–136
35 .... 1902 ..... Brusnev ........ hair recovered, mixed with mud .............................................. T, 36
36 .... 1908 ..... Quackenbush .... AK; pieces of flesh; tendons, skin, tail, and hair recovered ................ A, 299; Q, 107–113
37 .... 1908 ..... Vollosovitch-1 . small female; pieces scattered; died at end of summer ....................... P, 146–164; D, 211–212
38 .... 1910 ..... Vollosovitch-2 . late summer death; well-preserved eye, four legs, trunk, food in stomach .... P, 241–246; T, 37–38
39 .... 1910 ..... Soloviev ....... PC; young mammoth; reported to but not pursued by scientists ................ T, 39
40 .... 1913 ..... Goltchika ...... PC; "dogs and foxes got at it and ate pretty well all the lot” .............. T, 38; D, 212
41 .... 1915 ..... Transehe ....... PC; found in 30- to 50 foot cliff on the Arctic Ocean; never excavated ...... T, 39; Transehe 20
42 .... 1922 ..... Kara ........... carcass reported to scientists, only hard parts remained four years later ... T, 39–40
43 .... 1923 ..... Andrews ........ ivory traders sold skull still containing ligaments to British museum ....... T, 39
44 .... 1924 ..... Middle Kolyma .. scrap of trunk remained; no record of original discovery .................... VT, 19; G, 26
45 .... 1948 ..... Fairbanks Creek . AK; 200-pound, 6 month old; head, trunk, and one leg ....................... A, 299–300; G, 38–41
46 .... 1949 ..... Taimir ......... 50-year-old male; tendons, hair, and an almost complete skeleton ............ VT, 20; Lister and Bahl21
47 .... 1960 ..... Chekurov ....... carcass of a young female; very small tusks, hair ........................... Vinogradov22
48 .... 1970 ..... Berelekh ....... cemetery of at least 156 mammoths; minor hair and flesh remains ............. U, 134–148; S, 66–68
49 .... 1971 ..... Terektyakh ..... pieces of muscle, ligament, and skin; some around head ...................... S, 67
50 .... 1972 ..... Shandrin ....... old; 550 pounds of internal organs and food preserved ....................... U, 67–80; G, 27–29
51 .... 1972 ..... Churapachi ..... old rhinoceros, probably a female; lower legs were in fair condition ........ G, 34–37
52 .... 1977 ..... Dima ........... complete; 6-8 month old male ............................................. G, 7–24; U, 40–67
53 .... 1978 ..... Khatanga ....... 55-60 year old male; left ear, two feet; trunk in pieces .................... U, 30–40; G, 24–27
54 .... 1979 ..... Yuribei ........ 12 year old female; green-yellow grass in stomach; hind quarters preserved .. U, 12–13, 108–134; VT, 22
55 .... 1983 ..... Colorado Creek . AK; two males; bones, hair, and gut contents recovered ...................... Thorson and Guthrie 23
56 .... 1988 ..... Mascha ......... 3-4 month old female; complete except for trunk, tail, and left ear; found in the Yamal Peninsula . LB, 46–47; VT, 25
57 .... 1999 ..... Jarkov ......... fragments of a 47 year old male; removed in a 23 ton block of permafrost by helicopter . Stone24
Some references in the right column are abbreviated:
A=Anthony, D=Digby, G=Guthrie, H=Howorth, HD=Hornaday, HE=Hertz, LB=Lister and Bahl, P=Pfizenmayer, Q=Quackenbush, S=Stewart, 1977, T=Tolmachoff, U=Ukraintseva, VT=Vereshchagin and Tikhonov. Page numbers follow each abbreviation. See endnotes for complete citation. Other abbreviations are AK=found in Alaska, PC=possibly complete when first seen, RCY=radiocarbon years (most radiocarbon ages are from VT: 17–25).
Footnotes: a. Usually the year of excavation. First sighting often occurred earlier. b. The name given is usually the discoverer’s, a prominent person involved in reporting the discovery, or a geographical name such as that of a river.
c. No more than the two best references are given. The more complete reference is listed first. d. An approximate date. e. Referred to other carcasses but details are lacking.
If we now look for the bones and ivory of mammoths, not just preserved flesh, the number of discoveries becomes enormous, especially in Siberia and Alaska. Nikolai Vereshchagin, Chairman of the Russian Academy of Science’s Committee for the Study of Mammoths, estimated that more than half a million tons of mammoth tusks were buried along a 600-mile stretch of the Arctic coast.16 Because the typical tusk weighs 100 pounds, this implies that about 5 million mammoths lived in this small region. Even if this estimate is high or represents thousands of years of accumulation, we can see that large herds of mammoths must have thrived along what is now the Arctic coast. Mammoth bones and ivory are also found in Europe, North and Central Asia, and in North America, as far south as Mexico City.
Dense concentrations of mammoth bones, tusks, and teeth are also found on remote Arctic islands. Obviously, today’s water barriers were not always there. Many have described these mammoth remains as the main substance of the islands.25 What could account for any concentration of bones and ivory on barren islands well inside the Arctic Circle? Also, more than 200 mammoth molars were dredged up along with oysters from the Dogger Bank in the North Sea.26
The northern portions of Europe, Asia, and North America contain bones of many other animals along with those of mammoths. A partial listing includes tiger,27 antelope,28 camel, horse, reindeer, giant beaver, fox, giant bison, giant ox, musk sheep, musk ox, donkey, badger, ibex, woolly rhinoceros, lynx, leopard, wolverine, Arctic hare, lion, elk, giant wolf, ground squirrel, cave hyena, bear, and many types of birds. Friend and foe, as well as young and old, are found together. Carnivores are sometimes buried with herbivores. Were their deaths related? Rarely are animal bones preserved; preservation of so many different types of animal bones suggests a common explanation.
Finally, corings, 100 feet into Siberia’s permafrost, have recovered sediments mixed with ancient DNA of mammoths, bison, horses, other temperate animals, and the lush vegetation they require. Nearer the surface, these types of DNA are absent, but DNA of meager plants able to live there today is present.29 The climate must have suddenly and permanently changed to what it is today.
Mammoth Characteristics and Environment. The common misconception that mammoths lived in areas of extreme cold comes primarily from popular drawings of mammoths living comfortably in snowy, Arctic regions. The artists, in turn, were influenced by earlier opinions based on the mammoth’s hairy coat, thick skin, and a 3.5-inch layer of fat under the skin. However, animals with these characteristics do not necessarily live in cold climates. Let’s examine these characteristics more closely.
