Friday, Mar 29 2024
All Cities
Choose Your City
'I love Siberian women, they are incredible'
0

Villager digs his garden and finds 400,000 year old steppe mammoth tusks

By 0 and 0 and 0
06 June 2017

0

The steppe mammoth was a species of Elephantidae that ranged over most of northern Eurasia during Middle Pleistocene times, 600,000-370,000 years ago

The homeowner in the village of Oy, Yakutia was digging in his grounds to plant potatoes and cabbage when he came across the rare find.

The extinct steppe mammoth tusks are 270 cm long with a 'root' diameter of 50 cm.

Steppe mammoths predated the woolly mammoth for which Yakutia - also called Sakha Republic - is famous.

Remains of woolly mammoths are common here, but steppe mammoths are exceptionally rare and far older, dating back probably 400,000 years. 

Man in Siberia find steppe mammoth tusks while planting potato


Man in Siberia find steppe mammoth tusks while planting potato


Man in Siberia find steppe mammoth tusks while planting potato
Regional historian Prokopiy Nagovitsyn was in the party sent to investigate the villager's discovery which he called 'extraordinary'. Pictures: The Siberian Times


Regional historian Prokopiy Nagovitsyn was in the party sent to investigate the villager's discovery which he called 'extraordinary'.

'Due to understandable reasons we are not giving the exact location and the name of the find's owner,' he said. 

'We were invited as experts to assess the find.

'Paleontologists are on the way to study it further.'

Further details are expected soon.

Man in Siberia find steppe mammoth tusks while planting potato

Man in Siberia find steppe mammoth tusks while planting potato


Man in Siberia find steppe mammoth tusks while planting potato
A full skeleton of a steppe mammoth was found in Nizhny Bestyakh in Yakutia in 2015. Pictures: The Siberian Times 


'These are tusks of a steppe mammoth - so the find will be dated to approximately 400,000 years ago,' he said. 

'A full skeleton of a steppe mammoth was found in Nizhny Bestyakh in Yakutia in 2015. 

'These tusks are extremely old and fragile - so stay away mammoth tusk poachers. 

'The find has a huge scientific significance.'

Man in Siberia find steppe mammoth tusks while planting potato


Man in Siberia find steppe mammoth tusks while planting potato


Man in Siberia find steppe mammoth tusks while planting potato


Man in Siberia find steppe mammoth tusks while planting potato
The steppe mammoth was a species of Elephantidae that ranged over most of northern Eurasia during Middle Pleistocene times, 600,000-370,000 years ago


The steppe mammoth was a species of Elephantidae that ranged over most of northern Eurasia during Middle Pleistocene times, 600,000-370,000 years ago. 

It probably evolved in Siberia during the early Pleistocene from Mammuthus meridionalis.

The males had spiral tusks with a recurved tip up to 4.9 metres (16 ft) in length in old bulls.

Females had thinner and slightly curved tusks.

With a height of 4 metres (13.1 ft) at the shoulders the species was larger than the woolly mammoth which lived until around 3,500 years ago.

Comments (2)

What an amazing story, and find. I'm glad they contacted officials, so the discovery could be saved. Would be interesting to see the skeleton (along with missing pieces) put together.
Joan Barrington, Gibsons, BC Canada
10/06/2017 09:40
0
0
This is an awesome find. Congrats to the homeowner. The science community will have many hours of research now on the steppe mammoth.
rm2h, USA
08/06/2017 04:00
2
0
1

Add your comment

We welcome a healthy debate, but do not accept offensive or abusive comments. Please also read 'Siberian Times' Privacy Policy

Name

Town/Country

Add your comments

The views expressed in the comments above are those of our readers. 'Siberian Times' reserves the right to pre-moderate some comments.

Control code*

Type the code

* obligatory


News

Business

The Bank of Russia official exchange rates of foreign currencies
EUR99.71USD92.26GBP116.52Other...