The Jarkov Mammoth (named for the family who discovered it), is a

woolly mammoth The woolly mammoth (''Mammuthus primigenius'') is an extinct species of mammoth that lived during the Pleistocene until its extinction in the Holocene epoch. It was one of the last in a line of mammoth species, beginning with '' Mammuthus subp ...

Mol, D. et al. (2001). The Jarkov Mammoth: 20,000-Year-Old carcass of a Siberian woolly mammoth ''Mammuthus primigenius'' (Blumenbach, 1799). The World of Elephants, Proceedings of the 1st International Congress (October 16–20, 2001, Rome): 305-309
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specimen discovered on the

Taymyr Peninsula The Taymyr Peninsula (russian: Таймырский полуостров, Taymyrsky poluostrov) is a peninsula in the Far North of Russia, in the Siberian Federal District, that forms the northernmost part of the mainland of Eurasia. Administrat ...

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...

by a nine-year-old boy in 1997. This particular mammoth is estimated to have lived about 20,000 years ago. It is likely to be

male Male (symbol: ♂) is the sex of an organism that produces the gamete (sex cell) known as sperm, which fuses with the larger female gamete, or ovum, in the process of fertilization. A male organism cannot reproduce sexually without access to ...

and probably died at age 47.

Discovery

Simion Jarkov was a young

Dolgan Dolgans (; Dolgan: , , (Sakha); Yakut: ) are an ethnic group who mostly inhabit Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia. They are descended from several groups, particularly Evenks, one of the indigenous peoples of the Russian North. They adopted a Turk ...

living in the village of Khatanga, north of the

Arctic Circle The Arctic Circle is one of the two polar circles, and the most northerly of the five major circles of latitude as shown on maps of Earth. Its southern equivalent is the Antarctic Circle. The Arctic Circle marks the southernmost latitude at w ...

. Jarkov was visiting his family approximately further north in Novorybnoye. While hunting near 73°32'N, 105°49'E, he discovered the curved, tips of the

tusk Tusks are elongated, continuously growing front teeth that protrude well beyond the mouth of certain mammal species. They are most commonly canine teeth, as with pigs and walruses, or, in the case of elephants, elongated incisors. Tusks share c ...

s, which his brother reported to the Taymyr Nature Reserve. An attempt was initially made to move the tusks. The director, Yurik Karbuinov, said:

At first they tried to move the tusks, but I advised them to secure the site because it seemed to be a unique find.

The Nature Reserve did not initially investigate the find, so the Jarkovs contacted a Siberia specialist who would become a well-known mammoth-hunter

Bernard Buigues Bernard Buigues (born 19 July 1954, in Fes, Morocco) is a French explorer who has organized expeditions to the North Pole and Siberia since the early 1990s. He has developed a logistical base in Khatanga, Northern Siberia for the launching of h ...

. On 18 October 1999, the 23 tonne block of mud and ice was lifted via

Mil Mi-26 The Mil Mi-26 (russian: link=no, Миль Ми-26, NATO reporting name: Halo) is a Soviet/Russian heavy transport helicopter. Its product code is ''Izdeliye 90''. Operated by both military and civilian operators, it is the largest and most po ...

heavy-load transport helicopter to the ice cave in Khatanga.

Research

The Jarkov Mammoth was recovered from a 23

tonne The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the short ton ( United State ...

frozen block and transported to Khatanga under the supervision of French mammoth-hunter

. It currently resides in an

ice cave An ice cave is any type of natural cave (most commonly lava tubes or limestone caves) that contains significant amounts of perennial (year-round) ice. At least a portion of the cave must have a temperature below 0 °C (32 °F) all ...

where over 36 scientists from around the world, including Russian mammoth expert Alexei Tikhonov, study the find. The excavation and ongoing study of the Jarkov Mammoth has been recorded by the

Discovery Channel Discovery Channel (known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery) is an American cable channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav. , Discovery Channe ...

. Bone marrow and

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...

plant samples have been removed and sent to various laboratories for analysis as the mammoth thaws. As of 2001, the intactness of the mammoth is unknown. Over 50 samples from the Jarkov Mammoth have been

carbon-14 Carbon-14, C-14, or radiocarbon, is a radioactive isotope of carbon with an atomic nucleus containing 6 protons and 8 neutrons. Its presence in organic materials is the basis of the radiocarbon dating method pioneered by Willard Libby and coll ...

dated. Indications are that mammoths roamed the Taimyr region for tens of thousands of years. Scientists have determined that there were two periods when the mammoths departed the region, either in search of food or to escape flooding: 34,000 to 30,000 BC and 17,000 to 12,000 BC. The Jarkov Mammoth is believed to have lived between these two periods, 18,380 BC.

Cloning

Some scientists have expressed hopes that mammoth DNA may be extracted and cloned to bring the species back from

extinction Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

. However, other scientists, such as Alexei Tikhonov, have expressed concerns of the viability of any genetic material extracted. According to Tikhonov:

''You have to have a living cell for cloning, and not a single cell can survive in the permafrost.''

References

{{coord, 73, 32, N, 105, 49, E, region:RU_type:landmark_source:kolossus-dewiki, display=title Prehistoric elephants 1997 in Russia 1997 in paleontology Individual elephants 1997 archaeological discoveries

Discovery

Research

Cloning

See also

References