Our Lyuba leads a busy life, travels and even managed to visit overseas - at an exhibition in Chicago. Interest in the Yamal mammoth has not faded for 10 years. That is how much time has passed since the day it was discovered. The wife of a reindeer breeder who found a woolly baby elephant was called Lyuba, and this name was also given to the mammoth.
Today, scientists already know a lot about her - age, how many years she lay in the ground and how she died. But the baby is still in the spotlight.
A sensation that happened exactly 10 years ago. True, then no one suspected that this northern spring day would go down in history - the sons of the reindeer breeder Yuri Khudi found the carcass of an unprecedented animal on the Yuribey River. The discovery was promptly reported to the regional center, then events unfolded rapidly.
A hastily equipped expedition from Salekhard reached Yuribey a week later. They were in a hurry not in vain, having arrived at the place, the mammoth was not found.
“Even Yura himself, being in Yar-Sale I was sure she was there. In the end, she doesn't. We arrive, but she is not there, ” - recalls Andrey Gusev, senior researcher at the Scientific Center for the Study Arctic.
Then there was a hot pursuit, someone saw a team driving off towards the New Port. It was not difficult to find a baby mammoth there, the enterprising Nenets managed to hand over the find to a local entrepreneur.
Gathered around onlookers endlessly photographed an unprecedented beast on their phones, and street dogs managed to taste it - they gnawed off part of the tail and right ear. On this misadventures ended, already on May 22 the mammoth was delivered to Salekhard.
Having abandoned all their affairs, the leading mammoth experts of the planet immediately rushed to Salekhard. Among them is a professor at the University of Tokyo Jikei Naoki Suzuki. Our archive contains footage where he shares his first impressions of the meeting with Lyuba.
“I was simply amazed at how the mammoth was preserved, all parts of the body were present and even all the internal organs, so I am simply delighted. And it exceeds all my expectations,” said Naoki Suzuki, a professor at Jikei University of Tokyo.
It was then that he devoted everyone to his plans, to conduct a comprehensive study of the mammoth in his laboratory. And that was destined to come true. In the land of the rising sun, Lyuba made a splash.
Museum employee Galina Karzanova, who was immediately assigned the status of "Luba's mother", shows objects that are directly related to that story. Bright overalls, a vacuum bag, a respirator with an oxygen cylinder. This uniform was worn by everyone who had access to the body of a woolly elephant during a comprehensive study in Japan.
“Even then, no one knew what secrets lie in this mammoth. Suddenly, microbes or bacteria that are not present now will be found in his body, ”says Galina Karzanova, senior researcher at the Department of Natural History of the I. Shemanovsky.
With the help of a tomograph, scientists found out how the baby mammoth's body was arranged, for the first time they got a complete picture of the structure of the ancient giants, which was facilitated by the perfect preservation of the specimen, including internal organs.
Even a few strands of reddish wool were preserved on the legs and stomach, and the soles of the feet “like a baby’s” are even, with thin skin. She had not yet had time to coarsen and become covered with cracks, like in adult mammoths - which means that the baby did not go for her mother for long. And she died early one - three months old.
Lyuba also underwent surgical procedures in St. Petersburg. Paleontologists have studied the brain of a woolly elephant. We looked into the intestines. It turned out that the first days of life of mammoths are no different from the cubs of Indian elephants. Lyuba fed on her mother's milk and droppings, thus forming a bacteriological environment - immunity.
They also found the cause of death of a small female. She drowned, suffocating in the clay mass. DNA analysis showed that Lyuba belonged to the indigenous Siberian population, which, after her death, was supplanted by another that migrated from North America. It would seem that the discovery gave another chance to an incredible international project - the revival of mammoths, that is, the cloning of giants.
“The nuclear genome has not been completely deciphered, but in order to talk about recreating the mammoth in the future, a nuclear genome is needed, but still, several billion nucleotides have already been deciphered and somewhere around 75% of the entire genome. Knowing the nuclear genome, one can then theoretically assume, using the closest modern relative for the mammoth, the Indian elephant,” said Alexei Tikhonov, director of the Zoological Museum of St. Petersburg.
For the first time in Siberia, a complete skeleton of a woolly mammoth was discovered in 1799. Since then, almost two dozen specimens with preserved soft tissues have been found. However, none of the individuals discovered before has been preserved as well as the one found by the shepherd Yuri Khudi.
Managed to find the inhabitant of the ice dungeon. The legends of the Nenets are replete with stories about mammoths that roam the dark icy underground expanses, where they are herded by evil gods. Perhaps that is why, in the first interview in his life, he is embarrassed and, it seems, has not recovered from the shock.
- And who told you that the baby mammoth was gone?
- The wife said.
- The man who took the mammoth, what did he say?
- *Speaks something incomprehensible in a mixture of Nenets and Russian*
- And according to relatives, what do they say?
- Do not say anything. I picked it up and took it somewhere to the New Port.
Fast transportation to Salekhard, organization of conditions for storage until the moment of conservation made it possible to conduct many studies that were not available to mammoth scientists before. All the research turned out to be in the hands of the district museum.
“From the very beginning, the task was set to deliver Lyuba to our museum as quickly as possible, to prepare equipment for her display in our museum, for her study, transportation,” says Elena Chernyavskaya, Deputy Director of the Moscow Exhibition Complex. Shemanovsky.
There was time to create conditions for the storage, transportation and exhibition of Lyuba. Once upon a time, there was no place in the museum for the mammoth Masha - who eventually settled in St. Petersburg, in Salekhard they could not afford the maintenance of such a priceless exhibit. With Any end of the earth took a fair revenge.
Yakut paleontologists spoke about a sensational find made in the far north of the republic today. In the area of the village of Yukagir in the Ust-Yansky ulus, in a grotto formed as a result of thawing permafrost, scientists accidentally discovered the carcass of a baby mammoth.
Mammoth turned out to be a young female. She was named after the nearby village of Yukagir - Yukkoy. She has almost completely preserved hair, trunk, internal organs. The animal died at the age of about three years. Earlier, smaller mammoths were found in Yakutia. Or parts of adult animals. Not far from the place where Yucca was discovered, a mammoth head has already been found, which in 2005 became the symbol of the World Expo in Japan.
Scientists call it a real sensation that almost all the bones were removed from Yucca's body. The carcass was carefully dissected. Notches are marked on the back. If the ancient hunters did this, then it is not clear why they did not eat the meat, but only pulled out the bones and placed them next to the body of the killed animal. Perhaps paleontologists have come across clear evidence of some kind of prehistoric rite.
According to the leading researcher of the Institute of Geology, Diamond and Precious Metals of the Northern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences Gennady Boeskorov, an international team of scientists will come to grips with the secrets of Yucca in February next year. In the meantime, the baby mammoth is kept in a special refrigerator under the strictest supervision.
The mammoth fauna included about 80 species of mammals, which, thanks to a number of anatomical, physiological, and behavioral adaptations, managed to adapt to living in the cold continental climate of periglacial forest-steppe and tundra-steppe regions with their permafrost, severe winters with little snow, and powerful summer insolation. Approximately at the turn of the Holocene, about 11 thousand years ago, due to a sharp warming and humidification of the climate, which led to the thawing of the tundra-steppes and other fundamental changes in landscapes, the mammoth fauna disintegrated. Some species, such as the mammoth itself, woolly rhinoceros, giant deer, cave lion and others, have disappeared from the face of the earth. A number of large species of calluses and ungulates - wild camels, horses, yaks, saiga have survived in the steppes of Central Asia, some others have adapted to life in completely different natural zones (bison, kulans); many, such as the reindeer, musk ox, arctic fox, wolverine, white hare, and others, were driven far to the north and sharply reduced their area of distribution. The reasons for the extinction of the mammoth fauna are not completely known. Over the long history of its existence, it experienced already warm interglacial periods, and was then able to survive. Obviously, the last warming has caused a more significant restructuring of the natural environment, and perhaps the species themselves have exhausted their evolutionary possibilities.
Mammoths, woolly (Mammuthus primigenius) and Columbian (Mammuthus columbi), lived in the Pleistocene-Holocene on a vast territory: from southern and central Europe to Chukotka, northern China and Japan (Hokkaido Island), as well as in North America. The time of existence of the Colombian mammoth 250 - 10, woolly 300 - 4 thousand years ago (some researchers also include southern (2300 - 700 thousand years) and trogontheric (750 - 135 thousand years) elephants into the genus Mammuthus). Contrary to popular belief, mammoths were not the ancestors of modern elephants: they appeared on earth later and died out without even leaving distant descendants. Mammoths roamed in small herds, adhering to river valleys and feeding on grass, branches of trees and shrubs. Such herds were very mobile - it was not easy to collect the required amount of food in the tundra steppe. The size of the mammoths was quite impressive: large males could reach a height of 3.5 meters, and their tusks were up to 4 meters long and weighed about 100 kilograms. A powerful coat, 70–80 cm long, protected the mammoths from the cold. The average life expectancy was 45–50 years, with a maximum of 80 years. The main reason for the extinction of these highly specialized animals is a sharp warming and humidification of the climate at the turn of the Pleistocene and Holocene, snowy winters, as well as an extensive marine transgression that flooded the shelf of Eurasia and North America.
The structural features of the limbs and trunk, the proportions of the body, the shape and size of the mammoth tusks indicate that, like modern elephants, it ate various plant foods. With the help of tusks, animals dug out food from under the snow, tore off the bark of trees; vein ice was mined, which was used in winter instead of water. For grinding food, the mammoth had only one very large tooth on each side of the upper and lower jaws at the same time. The chewing surface of these teeth was a wide, long plate covered with transverse enamel ridges. Apparently, in the warm season, the animals fed mainly on grassy vegetation. Grasses and sedges prevailed in the intestines and oral cavity of mammoths that died in the summer, lingonberry bushes, green mosses and thin shoots of willow, birch, and alder were found in small quantities. The weight of an adult mammoth's stomach filled with food could reach 240 kg. It can be assumed that in winter, especially in the snowy season, the shoots of trees and shrubs acquired the main importance in the nutrition of animals. The huge amount of food consumed made mammoths, like modern elephants, lead a mobile lifestyle and often change their feeding areas.
Adult mammoths were massive animals, with relatively long legs and a short torso. Their height at the withers reached 3.5 m in males and 3 m in females. A characteristic feature of the appearance of the mammoth was a sharp sloping back, and for old males - a pronounced cervical interception between the “hump” and the head. In mammoths, these exterior features were softened, and the upper line of the head-back was a single slightly upwardly curved arc. Such an arc is also present in adult mammoths, as well as in modern elephants, and is connected, purely mechanically, with maintaining the enormous weight of the internal organs. The mammoth's head was larger than that of modern elephants. The ears are small, oval elongated, 5–6 times smaller than those of the Asian elephant, and 15–16 times smaller than those of the African. The rostral part of the skull was rather narrow, the alveoli of the tusks were located very close to each other, and the base of the trunk rested on them. The tusks are more powerful than those of the African and Asian elephants: their length in old males reached 4 m with a base diameter of 16–18 cm, in addition, they were twisted up and inward. The tusks of females were smaller (2–2.2 m, diameter at the base 8–10 cm) and almost straight. The ends of the tusks, in connection with the peculiarities of foraging, were usually erased only from the outside. The legs of the mammoths were massive, five-toed, with 3 small hooves on the front and 4 on the hind limbs; the feet are rounded, their diameter in adults was 40–45 cm. But still, the most unique feature of the appearance of the mammoth is a thick coat, which consisted of three types of hair: undercoat, intermediate and coverts, or guard hairs. The topography and coloration of the coat was relatively the same in males and females: on the forehead and on the crown of the head there was a hat of black coarse hair directed forward, 15–20 cm long, and the trunk and ears were covered with undercoat and awn of brown or brown color. The entire body of the mammoth was also covered with long, 80–90 cm outer hair, under which a thick yellowish undercoat was hidden. The color of the skin of the body was light yellow or brown, dark pigment spots were observed on areas free from hair. Mammoths molted for the winter; winter coat was thicker and lighter than summer.
Mammoths had a special relationship with primitive man. The remains of a mammoth at the sites of a man of the early Paleolithic were quite rare and belonged mainly to young individuals. One gets the impression that primitive hunters at that time did not often hunt mammoths, and the hunt for these huge animals was rather an accidental event. In the settlements of the Late Paleolithic, the picture changes dramatically: the number of bones increases, the ratio of males, females and young animals caught approaches the natural structure of the herd. Hunting for mammoths and other large animals of that period is no longer selective, but mass; The main method of hunting animals is driving them to rocky cliffs, into trapping pits, on the fragile ice of rivers and lakes, into swampy areas of marshes and on quays. The driven animals were finished off with stones, darts and stone-tipped spears. Mammoth meat was used for food, tusks were used to make weapons and handicrafts, bones, skulls and skins were used to build dwellings and ritual structures. The mass hunting of people of the Late Paleolithic, the growth in the number of tribes of hunters, the improvement of hunting tools and methods of extraction against the background of constantly deteriorating living conditions associated with changes in familiar landscapes, according to some researchers, played a decisive role in the fate of these animals.
The importance of mammoths in the life of primitive people is evidenced by the fact that even 20-30 thousand years ago, artists of the Cro-Magnon era depicted mammoths on stone and bone, using flint chisels and shaving brushes with ocher, iron oxide and manganese oxides. Previously, the paint was rubbed with fat or bone marrow. Flat images were painted on the walls of caves, on plates of slate and graphite, on fragments of tusks; sculptural - created from bone, marl or slate using flint chisels. It is very possible that such figurines were used as talismans, ancestral totems, or played another ritual role. Despite the limited means of expression, many images are very artistic and accurately convey the appearance of fossil giants.
During the 18th - 19th centuries, a little more than twenty reliable finds of mammoth remains in the form of frozen carcasses, their parts, skeletons with remnants of soft tissues and skin are known in Siberia. It can also be assumed that some of the finds remained unknown to science, many were found out too late and could not be studied. Using the example of the mammoth Adams, discovered in 1799 on the Bykovsky Peninsula, it is clear that news about the found animals came to the Academy of Sciences only a few years after they were discovered, and it was not easy to get to the far corners of Siberia even in the second half of the 20th century. . The great difficulty was the extraction of the corpse from the frozen ground and its transportation. The excavation and delivery of a mammoth discovered in the Berezovka River valley in 1900 (undoubtedly the most significant of the paleozoological finds of the early 20th century) can be called heroic without exaggeration.
In the 20th century, the number of finds of mammoth remains in Siberia doubled. This is due to the extensive development of the North, the rapid development of transport and communications, and the rise in the cultural level of the population. The first complex expedition using modern technology was a trip for the Taimyr mammoth, found in 1948 on an unnamed river, later called the Mammoth River. The extraction of the remains of animals “soldered” into the permafrost has become noticeably easier today thanks to the use of motor pumps that defrost and erode the soil with water. A remarkable monument of nature should be considered the "cemetery" of mammoths, discovered by N.F. Grigoriev in 1947 on the Berelekh River (the left tributary of the Indigirka River) in Yakutia. For 200 meters, the river bank here is covered with a scattering of mammoth bones washed out of the coastal slope.
Studying the Magadan (1977) and Yamal (1988) mammoths, scientists managed to clarify not only many questions of the anatomy and morphology of mammoths, but also to draw a number of important conclusions about their habitat and the causes of extinction. The last few years have brought new remarkable finds in Siberia: special mention should be made of the Yukagir mammoth (2002), which represents a scientifically unique material (the head of an adult mammoth was found with remnants of soft tissues and wool) and a baby mammoth found in 2007 in the river basin Yuribey on Yamal. Outside of Russia, it is necessary to note the finds of mammoth remains made by American scientists in Alaska, as well as the unique “cemetery-trap” with the remains of more than 100 mammoths, discovered by L. Agenbrod in the town of Hot Springs (South Dakota, USA) in 1974.
The exhibits of the mammoth hall are unique - after all, the animals presented here have already disappeared from the face of the earth several thousand years ago. Some of the most significant of them need to be discussed in more detail.
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Mammoth Dima extracted from permafrost
Mammoth Dima- Fossil mammoth. Also known as Kirgilyakh Mammoth- at the place of discovery. A unique museum exhibit and object for paleontological research. Before the discovery in 2007, Luba the mammoth was the only fully preserved mammoth in the world.
The body of a fossil mammoth was found in June 1977 at the mouth of the Kirgilyakh stream at its confluence with Berelekh (Susumansky district, Magadan region) at a depth of 2 meters from the earth's surface. The first to discover the carcass was the bulldozer driver Dmitry Logachev, who was working on the opening of the alleged gold deposit. Having moved another layer of earth with a bulldozer, he discovered an unusual brown-red object. After reviewing his find, he realized that he had found something unique. The discovery was immediately reported to Moscow. However, scientists were able to arrive at the discovery site only after a rather long time (about 10 days), during which the discovered carcass partially thawed and was partially damaged by dogs. The find was mothballed and sent to Moscow for study. Anatoly Lozhkin supervised the conservation and delivery works.
The body of a baby mammoth is 104 cm tall and weighs about 90 kg. The age of the baby mammoth at the time of death is estimated at 6-7 months. According to various estimates, the period of life is from 13 to 40 thousand years ago. It is assumed that shortly before his death, the mammoth injured his leg, fell into a hole filled with water and mud, could not get out, froze and drowned. Later, the frosty climate turned mud and ice into a natural preservative. The preservation rate of the carcass is estimated at almost 100 percent. The skin, entrails and soft tissues of the mammoth are perfectly preserved. The wool was also preserved, but fell off when the carcass was thawed.
Regarding the origin of the name mammoth, there are two versions. According to one version, the mammoth is named Dima in honor of the worker who found it. According to another version, the name Dima comes from the name of a small stream, near which the mammoth was found.
The discovery of the mammoth carcass was immediately recognized as a scientific sensation on a global scale. This was the first time a mammoth carcass was discovered in modern times and in a form suitable for research. In addition, of all the carcasses of a mammoth ever discovered, the baby mammoth Dima was in the best state of preservation. Thanks to this, the features of the anatomical structure of mammoths were studied, information was obtained about the circumstances of their life.
As of January 2010, the baby mammoth Dima is included in the collection of the Zoological Museum of the Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences. However, interest in this exhibit all over the world is quite large, so the exhibit is annually taken out of the museum (including outside Russia) for demonstration in museum expositions and temporary exhibitions.
In 1977, a well-preserved 7-8-month-old mammoth cub was discovered in the Kolyma River basin.
It was a touching and sad sight for the prospectors who discovered the baby mammoth Dima (so he was named after the spring of the same name, in the decay of which he was found): he was lying on his side with mournfully outstretched legs, with his eyes closed and a slightly crumpled trunk.
Mammoth Dima
The find immediately became a worldwide sensation due to the excellent state of preservation and the possible cause of death of the baby mammoth. The poet Stepan Shchipachev composed a touching poem about a baby mammoth lagging behind his mother mammoth, and an animated film about the unfortunate mammoth was made.
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 rest of the corpse was excavated.
Yukagir mammoth. Yakutia
According to radiocarbon analysis, the mammoth lived 18 thousand years ago. The male, about 3 m tall at the withers and weighing 4 - 5 tons, died at the age of 40 - 50 years (for comparison: the average life expectancy of modern elephants is 60 - 70 years), probably after falling into a pit. At present, everyone can see the mammoth head model at the Mammoth Museum of the Federal State Scientific Institution "Institute of Applied Ecology of the North" in the mountains. Yakutsk.
