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In bowels of Yakutia is
found out a significant part of all unique finds of mammoths known in the
world, woolly rhinoceroses, bisons, musk oxes, cave lions and others animal
of bygone epoch. Among them a first-ever skeleton of the mammoth (mammoth of
Adams) found in 1799 in delta of the river Lena; well kept corpse of the
mammoth from the river Berezovka - the right inflow of the river Kolyma (it
is dug out by expedition of the Petersburg Academy of sciences under the
direction of 0. F.Gerts in 1901-1902) . In later time in various areas of
Yakutia were found a full skeleton of Churapchinsky rhinoceros with remains
of skin and wool (1972), a skeleton of Shandrinsky mammoth,
one-and-a-half-year-old mylakhchinsky bison with the rests of soft fabrics
and wool. (1971) and others. Due to long-term efforts of all generations of
scientists, these finds became invaluable museum pieces decorating halls of
many Russian museums. One of such exhibits - a full skeleton of the mammoth -
is exposed in a museum of natural history in Paris. Studying fossils of
ancient animals, contents of an intestinal path, it is possible to judge the
reasons of their extinction, about a climate and flora of bygone epoch, laws
of evolutionary ancient development and the Mammoth - a large gregarious
animal from family of elephant. The ancestral home of mammoths is considered
to be Africa. Height of a body - 3-4 meters, weight - 5-6 tons. The scalp of
brown color reached 1,2 meters. Skin thickness was up to 2 sm and long hair
with rich soft underfur reliably protected the mammoth from fierce colds. Tusks
of old individuals grew up to 4 meters with weight of more than 100 kg. The
mammoth - a herbivore, per day ate up to half a ton vegetative food. Life
expectancy of the mammoth - 70-80 years. Fruitfulness of this mammal was very
low, sexual ability came by 11-15 years. The area of mammoths and their
faunae (a bison, woolly rhinoceros, musk ox etc.) was extremely extensive. The
bone rests of these representatives of ancient animals are found almost on
all territory of northern hemisphere of the Earth. Especially often and in
good condition they are found in Eastern Siberia. It is explained by cold
climatic conditions and such natural phenomenon of these places, as
permafrost (held down bowels through hundreds meters). By researchers it is established, that
ancestors of the mammoth and fauna accompanying it have appeared in the north
more than one million years ago and have existed during all glacial age. In
their beginning the climate was moderately cold, there was a formation of
permafrost. Then during all period there was the gradual cold snap,
interrupted by short epoch of interglacial warming. About 20 thousand years
ago during congelations was established very cold sharply continental
climate, developed tundras with plentiful grassy vegetation. Mammoths and
their fauna well adapted to such extreme environment, having reached in this
period the greatest development. Investigating various aspects of a history
of life of mammoths, we deeply learn life of a paleolithic person as they
closely adjoined among themselves in the given historical epoch. Integral
part of research work of the museum is search and excavation of burial places
of mammoths and accompanying fauna. Due to field expeditions of last years
valuable paleontologic finds - the rests of a corpse of bi-monthly mammoth
child with the kept head, trunk and a leg (1990), a part of skin of a head of
the mammoth with an eye-socket and an ear, legs of this giant (1994-1997) are
revealed, etc. |
