Ljuba (mammoth)

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Ljuba in May 2010 at the Field Museum of Natural History

Ljuba ( Russian Люба ) is the mummy of a female woolly mammoth calf (Mammuthus primigenius) that died around 40,000 years ago at the age of around one month. It is the most fully preserved mammoth mummy discovered in the world, surpassing Dima , the ice mummy of a 6 to 8 month old male mammoth calf found in 1977, which was previously the best preserved specimen.

Discovery and Exploration

The woolly mammoth calf was discovered in May 2007 by the reindeer herder and hunter Juri Chudi on the upper reaches of the Juribei River on the Russian Yamal Peninsula . River water had loosened the animal from the ground and washed it to its place of discovery. It was named "Ljuba" after the discoverer's wife. Of the Yamal Peninsula, it came in July 2007 in the Schemanowski Museum in Salekhard , the administrative center of the autonomous district of Yamal-Nenets , where an international team of researchers examined the Fund.

The mammoth was taken to Tokyo Jikei Medical University in Japan in December 2007 for further examinations, including computed tomography scans. In November 2009 the mammoth “Ljuba” returned to Salekhard. From March 5, 2010 to September 6, 2010 it was the focus of the exhibition Mammoths and Mastodons: Titans of the Ice Age at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago . A copy of “Ljuba” was shown from November 20, 2010 to May 1, 2011 in the special exhibition “Mammoths, Giants of the Ice Age” in the Neanderthal Museum in Mettmann .

description

The mammoth calf weighs 50 kg, is 85 centimeters high and 130 centimeters long. Remnants of fur are on its body, torso and eyes have remained intact, and even the animal's eyelashes are still clearly visible. The toenails are missing, a piece of the tail and the right ear were bitten off by dogs when it was briefly taken over by a dealer before it was transported to Salekhard. The animal's skin, muscles and internal organs are preserved, the scientists were able to identify milk from the mother in its belly and feces in the intestine, and they were able to prove that, like some modern young elephants , it ate the feces of the adult herd members, in order to supply his organism with digestive bacteria that he initially lacked.

Lyuba is believed to have suffocated in the mud when she was stuck in the bed of the river her flock crossed. During the autopsy, scientists found a thick layer of clay and sand in the animal's mouth, trunk and throat. The clay-like substance that likely choked them also caused the preservation that ensured the mammoth's preservation. While previous mammoth finds showed signs of hunger, Ljuba was apparently well nourished from breast milk. The results of an isotope study of the second and third molars showed that she was born in the spring.

meaning

Cross-sections of her left milk tooth and a premolar allow the conclusion that it descended from mammoths from Alaska , which from there colonized Siberia via Beringia after the original Siberian mammoths became extinct or were exterminated by ice age hunters. By further examining the tusks, the researchers hope to find causes for the Quaternary extinction wave at the end of the last ice age .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Tom Mueller (May 2009): Ice Baby A near-perfect frozen mammoth resurfaces after 40,000 years, bearing clues to a great vanished species. National Geographic (accessed July 6, 2010)
  2. ↑ Dagny Lüdemann: Frozen mammoth calf discovered Der Tagesspiegel (accessed July 6, 2010)
  3. ↑ CT from Mammut ( Memento from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Bonn
  4. ↑ janao: Mammoth baby Lyuba returns to its historic homeland in November RusBusinessNews (accessed July 6, 2010)
  5. ↑ Mammoths and Mastodons: Titans of the Ice Age. In: fieldmuseum.org. Field Museum of Natural History , Chicago, archived from the original on February 24, 2013 ; accessed on April 4, 2018 (press release).
  6. ↑ Andreas Keil (June 8, 2010) The mammoths come to the Neandertal Westdeutsche Zeitung (accessed July 6, 2010)
  7. ↑ Paul Rincon: Baby mammoth discovery unveiled . In: news.bbc.co.uk , The BBC, July 10, 2007. Retrieved July 6, 2010. 
  8. ↑ Dmitry Solovyov: Baby mammoth find promises breakthrough . In: reuters.com , Reuters , July 11, 2007. Retrieved July 6, 2010. 
  9. ↑ Olivia Smith (April 21, 2009) Baby mammoth Lyuba, pristinely preserved, offers scientists rare look into mysteries of Ice Age Daily News (accessed July 6, 2010)
  10. ^ All About Mammoths and Mastodons, Learning from Lyuba. Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago (accessed July 6, 2010)