In the last week, a darling of mammoth Woolly has been found in North America in the permafrost in the Yukon region of Canada — Permafrost, or permafrost, is soil in the earth’s crust composed of ice, soil, and permanently frozen rock. According to the researchers, the mummified mammoth calf must have been more than 30 thousand years.
The baby measures 1.4 meters in length and was called “nun cho ga”, or “big baby animal” in the region’s indigenous language (Hän). Based on the analyzed data, the researchers also suspect that the specimen was a female, who was only a month old when it died.
The prehistoric animal was found by Canadian miners digging for gold in Klondike, Yukon Territory. After the discovery, geologists from the University of Calgary and the Yukon Geological Survey were brought in to study the find.
Researchers Found With Baby Mammoth; The area where the mammoth was found belongs to the natives of the Tr’ondek Hwech’in First Nation. Dan Shugar/University of Calgary
Scientists suspect that “Nun cho ga” died by losing her mother and being trapped in the mud until she drowned. Researchers believe that had it lived longer and grown like a common mammoth, it would have grown up to 4 meters in height and had huge tusks.
“As an Ice Age paleontologist, one of my lifelong dreams has been to meet a real woolly mammoth face to face. That dream came true today. Well Cho Ga is beautiful and one of the most amazing mummified Ice Age animals ever discovered in the world,” said paleontologist Grant Zazula of the Yukon Government’s Department of Tourism and Culture.
Being part of the recovery of Nun cho ga, the woolly mammoth baby found in the permafrost in the Klondike this week (for Solstice and Indigenous Peoples Day!) was the most exciting scientific thing I’ve ever been a part of, aside from none. https://t.co/WnGoSo8hPk pic.twitter.com/JLD0isNk8Y
— Prof. Dan Shugar (@WaterSHEDLab) June 24, 2022
extinct mammoths
Scientists say the find is important because of the condition of the calf, which is already thought to be the bestpreserved woolly mammoth in North America. The animal is even compared to another 42,000yearold mammoth found under Siberian ice in Russia in 2017.
According to Live Science, woolly mammoths walked alongside wild horses, cave lions and giant bison in various regions in North America, Europe and Asia. Mammoths became completely extinct about 5,000 years ago.