Sopkarga mammoth

The Sopkarga mammoth, alternately spelled Sopkarginsky mammoth, and informally called Zhenya, after the nickname of its discoverer, is a woolly mammoth carcass found in October 2012. It was discovered 3 kilometres (2 mi)[3] away from the Sopkarga polar weather station[4] on the Taymyr Peninsula in Russia. The Moscow News refers to it as the best preserved mammoth find in the past 100 years.[3]

Sopkarga mammoth
LocationBluff that formed right bank of the Yenisei River
RegionTaymyr Peninsula
TypeMummified remains
History
Periods48,000 cal ka BP[1]
Site notes
Discovered28 August 2012[2]
ArchaeologistsYevgeny Salinder

The remains are those of a male, aged 15 to 16 years,[4] who died c. 48,000 years ago.[1] They weigh over 500 kilograms (1,100 lb), comprising the right half of the body including soft tissue, skin and hair, the skull with one ear, a tusk, bones and reproductive organs.[3]

This find is the best-preserved of its kind since another mammoth was unearthed in 1901 near the Beryozovka River in Yakutia.[3] This makes Zhenya the second-best preserved mammoth ever found.[4]

Over the course of a week, the frozen carcass was extracted using steam, axes, and picks. It was then transported by helicopter to Dudinka, the capital of Taymyr, and placed in an ice chamber.[3]

Zhenya's hump appears to be composed of fat, similar to a camel's hump.[3]

The remains were found by 11-year-old Yevgeny Salinder who lives near the station. His nickname is "Zhenya".[3][4]

See also

References
  1. Maschenko, Evgeny N.; Potapova, Olga R.; Vershinina, Alisa; Shapiro, Beth; Streletskaya, Irina D.; Vasiliev, Alexander A.; Oblogov, Gleb E.; Kharlamova, Anastasia S.; Potapov, Eugene; Van Der Plicht, J.; Tikhonov, Alexey N.; Serdyuk, Natalia V.; Tarasenko, Konstantin K. (2017). "The Zhenya Mammoth ( Mammuthus primigenius (Blum.)): Taphonomy, geology, age, morphology and ancient DNA of a 48,000 year old frozen mummy from western Taimyr, Russia". Quaternary International. 445: 104–134. doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2017.06.055.
  2. Maschenko, E. N.; Tikhonov, A. N.; Serdyuk, N. V.; Tarasenko, K. K.; Lopatin, A. V. (2015). "A finding of the male mammoth carcass in the Karginsky suit of the Upper Pleistocene of the Taimyr Peninsula". Doklady Biological Sciences. 460: 32–35. doi:10.1134/S0012496615010068. PMID 25773247.
  3. 8/10/2012+7 °C. "Child discovers a mammoth in Taymyr | RUSSIA". The Moscow News. Archived from the original on 30 October 2012. Retrieved 7 October 2012.
  4. Grenoble, Ryan (4 October 2012). "'Zhenya' Mammoth Find in North Russia, Biggest in 100 Years, Made By 11-Year-Old Evgeny Salinder". HuffPost. Retrieved 7 October 2012.

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