Klondike gold diggers continue to stumble upon nuggets.
A treasure trove of flesh and bones emerged on Tuesday from the Canadian Far North, with the discovery of the mummified and almost complete remains of a baby woolly mammoth.
Extremely rare, the discovery was immediately reported to Canadian and Aboriginal authorities by the group of miners who exhumed the animal, during work along Eureka Creek, a gold-bearing stream located about fifty kilometers south of Dawson City (Yukon).
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It
“is magnificent
,” enthused Yukon paleontologist Grant Zazula in a statement.
“
It is one of the most incredible mummified animals from the Ice Age discovered in the world”
, also assured the specialist.
The remains of the animal, which died more than 30,000 years ago, were found by digging the permafrost with a mechanical shovel, in the Yukon Territory, bordering US Alaska.
Back then, the area was roamed by woolly mammoths, wild horses, cave lions and other giant steppe bison.
The most preserved specimen in America
Batteries of analyzes should soon make it possible to learn more about the prehistoric baby, whose skin and hair are intact.
Presumably a female, the specimen was baptized Nun Cho Ga, or
"big baby animal"
in the language of the Häns, the indigenous people of the region.
Coincidentally, the mummified animal was discovered on the day of the summer solstice, which is also National Indigenous Peoples Day in Canada.
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"
This is a remarkable find for our First Nation
," said Roberta Joseph, Chief of the Tr'ondëk Hwëch'in Hän Band, where the baby mammoth was found.
We look forward to working with the Government of Yukon on the next steps ahead of these remains, in a way that honors our traditions, culture and laws."
Nun Cho Ga is the first nearly complete mammoth in such good condition to be found in North America.
Like other specimens of its species, its body has undergone natural mummification, due to the properties of its environment.
Part of the remains of a baby mammoth nicknamed Effie were found in 1948 in an Alaskan gold mine, and a 42,000-year-old mummified specimen in Siberia in 2007, nicknamed Liouba, and the same size as the last discovered.
The Yukon Territory is known worldwide for its fossils of Ice Age animals, but
"mummified remains with skin and hair are rarely unearthed
," the Yukon government said.
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