Blue babe

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Blue babe

Blue Babe is the name of an approximately 35,000 year old ice mummy of a male steppe bison ( Bos priscus ), also called steppe bison, whose body was preserved in the ice in 1979 near Fairbanks in Alaska (USA). The name comes from the blue color of the skin, caused by a chemical reaction with the air during the recovery of the carcass.

Blue Babe's hooves protruding from the mud were discovered by prospecting gold panners. The salvage of the carcass was carried out by paleontologists .

Blue Babe was about eight or nine years old at the time of his death in the North American mammoth steppes and was in excellent physical condition. According to the reconstructions that were carried out, the bison fell victim to two American lions ( Panthera leo atrox ), which were widespread in Alaska at the time . After death, the lions mainly ate the flesh of the back and torso; However, after the onset of frost, the predators could not tear any more pieces of meat from the body. This is also indicated by a lion's tooth fragment found in the body of the bison. The frozen body was apparently covered in mud and loess in the spring . He then completely mummified in the mud.

A reconstruction of the prehistoric bison is now in the Museum of the University of Alaska .

literature

R. Dale Guthrie: Frozen Fauna of the Mammoth Steppe: The Story of Blue Babe . University of Chicago Press, 1990 Preview in Google Book Search

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