On June 21, at the Klondike gold mines near Eureka Creek in Canada, workers found the body of a baby mammoth in the permafrost that had died about 30,000 years ago. This is the best-preserved body of a woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) ever found in North America.
The find was made in the traditional territory of the Heng Indian people. Therefore, the name for the mammoth was chosen by the elders of this people. The young female mammoth was named Nun-cho-ga, which can be translated as “big cub.”
“As an Ice Age paleontologist, my lifelong dream was to come face to face with a real woolly mammoth. That dream has come true today,” said paleontologist Grant Zazula of the University of Calgary and the Geological Survey of Canada. “Nun-cho-ga is beautiful and one of the most incredible Ice Age animal mummies ever discovered in the world. I would be very happy to learn more about her.”
Professor Dan Sugar of the University of Calgary, who participated in the Noon-cho-ga study, said: “This discovery was the most exciting scientific work I have ever been involved in.” He described how immaculately preserved the mammoth was, saying that he still had intact hooves on his legs, skin, hair, ears, trunk right down to the tip and even intestines, which still contains the remnants of grass eaten by Nun-cho-ga. The length of the body of Nun-cho-ga is 140 centimeters, a little more than that of the mammoth Lyuba, found in Yamal in 2007.
Ilustration: Woolly Mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) Wikimedia Commons
