Woolly Mammoths Resurfacing In Siberia

A fantastic LA Times article details the recent proliferation of woolly mammoth bones in Siberia. As permafrost in the region thaws, entire villages subsist on trade in mammoth bones -- so much so that a new word has been coined: "mamontit, or "to mammoth" -- meaning, to go out in search of bones."

The article has some wonderful details on the art and science of finding the bones:

"You need to have luck to find bones," said Fyodor Romanenko, a geologist at Moscow State University. "I don't look for bones. I find them. They find me."

At HuffPost Green, we've been keeping track, not only of resurfacing mammoth bones, but the possibility of mammoth resurrection. Click here to watch the 60 Minutes report on the potential to bring the extinct back to life. Says reporter Lesley Stahl:

Just last year, using only a few clumps of woolly mammoth hair, scientists at Penn State were able to extract enough DNA fragments to figure out most of its genetic sequence, making the woolly mammoth the first extinct animal to have its genome decoded.

Comments

[rougebaisers]

05:55 AM on 03/04/2010

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/Barrow-Alaska-Ground-Zero-for-Climate-Change.html

[Tad Hunter]

11:46 PM on 03/03/2010

teeth 100,000 to 80,000 years, wooley mammoth bones 5,000 years. I wonder who put the two together. Sounds like good science. The only burial site older than 3 or 4 thousand years. Good reporting

[rf dude]

11:20 PM on 03/03/2010

'
Knew Stompy would pop-up sooner or later...

[BobQueuePublic]

10:12 PM on 03/03/2010

It's a republican plot.

[MJinCanada]

05:43 PM on 03/03/2010

The National Geographic "Ice Baby" story linked above is absolutely fascinating.

For those who can't spot it: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/05/mammoths/mueller-text

It's 8 pages, and worth it.

[wdmax]

05:15 PM on 03/03/2010

Permafrost is melting...

permafrost |ˈpərməˌfrôst; -ˌfräst|
noun
a thick subsurface layer of soil that remains frozen throughout the year, occurring chiefly in polar regions.
ORIGIN 1940s: from permanent + frost .

[MJinCanada]

05:46 PM on 03/03/2010

I've been pointing that out to climate change deniers for ages. The north is changing. Lakes don't freeze over as much as they used to.

And the thing about thawing permafrost is that it releases methane into the atmosphere.

[VietVet67]

04:17 PM on 03/03/2010

What's Rush doing in Siberia?

[MJinCanada]

05:11 PM on 03/03/2010

I'd associate Rush more with a tyrannosaurus.

[Fritziscool]

03:30 PM on 03/03/2010

Sarah Palins can see Mamoths from her house.

[Cinnamonape]

03:03 PM on 03/03/2010

Do not worship Mammon...or Mamon Tit".

[hrc04]

03:01 PM on 03/03/2010

And why do we want woolly mammoths strolling around outside?

[mikefarinha]

10:13 AM on 03/04/2010

They'd make too big of a mess strolling around inside... duh!

[horhay]

02:53 PM on 03/03/2010

I remember reading an article some years ago about woolly mammoths that had survived on Wrangel Island(off the northern coast of Siberia) until about 2000 BC. They became a dwarf variant of the actual species, which is common for any population of fauna that is confined to an island. While the mammoth tusks & bones that are resurfacing in Siberia are 10,000s years old when mammoths were abundant. It's amazing to know that there were still mammoths living on Earth less than 5000 years ago.

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v362/n6418/abs/362337a0.html

http://www.search.com/reference/Woolly_mammoth

[blueken]

03:09 PM on 03/03/2010

As Egypt built pyramids pigmy Mammoths roamed. Pretty cool.

[StopMakingSense2]

01:55 PM on 03/03/2010

If you want to bring something back how about rational thought and civil discourse.. We are in a deep thought recession..

[DanWJ]

03:38 PM on 03/03/2010

I think we have a better chance of resurrecting the mammoth.

[paniangelica]

04:23 PM on 03/03/2010

More likely we're in a brain-deprived depression...

[RoveRoveRoveYourBoat]

12:27 PM on 03/03/2010

...bringing 60-Minutes back to life isn't worth the trouble.

[RTIII]

09:24 PM on 03/03/2010

I watched 60 minutes every Sunday for decades. Then I noticed that they didn't properly cover the WTC attack in 2000, nor did they cover the 2000 decision by the Supreme Court to appoint Bush ... and I suddenly realized that they were no longer an objective organization. I have never watched an entire episode since then and what I have watched seems to me to be "sanitized" as it never was before. Oh, I'm sure there are some good stories here and there - maybe some great ones - but "the thrill is gone."

I really miss Andy, though.
.

[dfranz]

12:04 PM on 03/03/2010

I'm sure this has no relationship to global climate change, just because these mammoths were buried 12,000 years ago is pure coincidence.

Pay no attention to the rising ocean levels.

[Hugatreetoday]

01:29 PM on 03/03/2010

Exactly. Tell that to Faux News though. Those dunder heads.

[pharmmajor]

12:03 PM on 03/03/2010

In soviet Russia, permafrost thaws YOU.

[stanblack]

03:38 PM on 03/03/2010

Very Chuck Norris-ian of you. Indeed. Indeed!