Frozen Mammoths and Modern Geology

Abstract

Although some problems concerning the frozen fauna of Siberia and Alaska remain to be solved, recent field work and new techniques have contributed much to our understanding since Tolmachoff''s summary account in 1929. Frozen woolly mammoths have now been found in northern and northeastern Siberia and Alaska in deposits attributed to Last interglacial and Last glacial times. They are unknown in Postglacial deposits. Only 4 of the 39 known frozen carcasses are by any means complete, and all of the cadavers were rotten and somewhat mutilated prior to being frozen. More than 50,000 mammoths lived in Siberia during Late Pleistocene time. The woolly mammoths lived in a tundra region similar to that in which they are found today, but the climate wag slightly warmer and perhaps moister. They were apparently well adapted to the cold climate; their long hair, warm Tinderwool, and thick layer of subcutaneous fat protected them against the cold air, and their broad, four-toed feet and relatively small size (as compared to that of their fossil European relatives) were advantageous in marshy pastures. The frozen mammoths were healthy and robust when they died. The well-preserved specimens, with food in their stomachs and between their teeth, must have died suddenly, probably from asphyxia resulting from drowning in a lake or bog or from being buried alive by a mudflow or cave-in of a river bank. Since only the heavy-footed giants of the fauna[long dash]the mammoths and woolly rhinoceroses[long dash]have been found in a frozen state, it is very unlikely that a catastrophic congelation occurred in Siberia. On the contrary, the frozen giants are indicative of a normal and expected (uniformitarian) circumstance of life on the tundra.