Mammoth graveyard

 

First, the bones of a female mammoth dubbed "Vika" were found at the site in 2009. Now, the fossilized remains of up to 6 more mammoths are being excavated, and the director of the Archeological Project Viminacium, Miomir Korać, has declared the find unique. While the location of a singular elephant graveyard is a myth, here paleontologists have identified the world's first collective graveyard of a herd of mammoths (images above, more photos here). The discovery was made in mid-June at an open pit coal mine in Kostolac, Serbia. Mining operations were halted when bones were damaged by equipment as they dug 20yds underground. By the time experts could be summoned to the site, which covers roughly 20,000 square meters, a torrential rain exposed more bones, Korac's team vowed to use everything from toothpicks to infrared screening to locate and unearth the skeletons, a task expected to take 6 months. Excavation - which shouldn't be difficult, since they are buried in a matrix of loose sand - will be followed by collaboration among international paleozoologists, paleontologists, and archaeologists to shed light on life as long as 1 million years ago. Korać says, "This is a rare global treat because no such place exists elsewhere in the world."

__________

Always room in the cabinet for more mammoths!

Mammoth maybe

Accidental fossil discoveries

Frozen baby mammoth

More mammoths

Woolly mammoth

Mammoth maybe

Today, something a little more lighthearted. And about woolly mammoths, which I love! In addition to owning a mammoth tooth and some mammoth hair, I have blogged about (and linked to stories about) them many times:

• When the frozen baby mammoth named "Lubya" was discovered and again when she was prepped for an international museum tour
• When one team of researchers found a fungus in mammoth poop that helped explain why they died out, another team confirmed that mammoths were not hunted to extinction, and a 3rd found through soil analysis that woolly mammoths existed for thousands of years longer than previously thought
• When I learned that an ancient Venus sculpture was made from woolly mammoth tusk, a 13,000-year-old bone etching of a walking mammoth was found to be authentic, and modern Russian scrimshaw carvers are using woolly mammoth tusks as a source of ethical ivory
• When some scientists analyzed a blood protein of woolly mammoths to show that it allowed them to survive in freezing temperatures, and others considered the implications of reproducing woolly mammoths by cloning
• And when there were noteworthy finds of mammoth fossils in hurricane damage, while digging in the yard, on the golf course, and - my particular favorite - on the beach (which also includes the delightful discovery of a rocky outcropping where mammoths scratched their backs)

I had even hatched a plan (since abandoned) to become a woolly mammoth for Halloween! So I would dearly love for this newly uploaded video of mammoth crossing a Siberian stream to be authentic. But, alas, the consensus is that it is a hoax. Cryptozoologists and others base this on the movement of the river wake against the current, the brief length and poor quality of the clip, and - perhaps most telling - the reputations of the source (described as today's P.T. Barnum) and the outlet. Although mammoths were alive as recently as 4,000 years ago, the animal in the video is thought to be a brown bear with a salmon in its mouth, which would look like this from another angle. Steven Novella writes on NeoroLogica, "There is nothing in the video to make one suspect that it is a woolly mammoth, or that can rule out a bear eating a fish. Between the 2 possibilities, Occam’s razor strongly favors the bear – because then we don’t have to introduce the new element of a surviving population of mammoths."

Follow-ups

Follow-ups 12/9/09 Reader Megan brought this to my attention: a mutant parakeet - the opposite of the bald parrot pictured in this post! And just for good measure, here are a few more oddities: birds in sweaters (scroll down), diapers, a flight harness, and fancy dress.

Hermits - 2 scenarios 12/8/09 An unidentified couple from Indiana have been selected from 250 individuals or families who offered to adopt 2 pugs - Harry and Sally - who had fed on the flesh of their owner after he died.

Happy Thanksgiving! 11/26/09 I mentioned in an e-mail to my previous next-door neighbor Steve that we were going to save ourselves the trouble and order a boxed turkey dinner from the local grocery store this year, and I just have to share his response: "I hear them kind of turkeys are the ones that died in the truck - the brown part of the skin is really broom marks." When I told him we were doing the same thing for Christmas, he responded, "Christmas boxed turkeys are the ones that the homeless shelters rejected on Thanksgiving for smelling worse than the people there to eat them." I hope that doesn't offend anyone. It left me giggling!

Docking cow tails 10/27/09 A jumping cow made the news in Blagdon, Somerset, U.K. In news somewhat related to this post, the RSPCA reports that a "caller was distressed about a 'tumour' hanging off the back of a sheep. When an inspector attended, he found the 'tumour' was, in fact, a tail."

Shackleton 10/28/09 Word of another treasure found in an Antarctic hut - this time the oldest supply of Kiwi butter found near a shelter of Robert F. Scott.

Dinosaur eggs 10/3/09 Every new dinosaur discovery is said to threaten the current knowledge of paleontology. Here's another discovery that promises to "shake the dinosaur family tree."

Pig butchering 9/1/09 Investigations by the U.S.D.A. are underway in Florida to root out unlicensed slaughterhouses.

Human hybrids 8/22/09 Like the artist of this procative sculpture, Australian artist Sam Jinks creates very realistic sculptures like the one pictured above. It reminds me - as it is surely meant to - of the Pietà.

Surviving rabies 8/18/09 An Arizona man was set upon by a rabid bobcat last week and managed to strangle it with his bare hands.

Leonardo's lion 8/17/09 An instrument - the harpsichord-viola - has been reconstructed from the sketches in Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks.

Ripley's Seeing is Believing 8/14/09 In this post, I link to a video of a pelican swallowing a pigeon. Here is a report of 2 herons whose eyes were bigger than their stomachs - with fatal results.

Pangolins 7/20/09 My sister brought to my attention the recent rescue of some pangolins destined for the Black Market, and I found a number of recent recoveries: 130 and another 31 in December and 98 in August in Malaysia, and 66 in December in Thailand.

Green eggs and ham 5/11/09 Wild pigs are a hazard at the international airport in Harare, Zimbabwe. Dressing as a wild boar while hunting proved fatal in Greece. And walkers in Germany were terrorized by wild boars. (Plenty of weird wild boar news to form a future post about "Hogzilla" and his kin.)

Chihuahuas in the weird news 5/2/09 California animal shelters report an overabundance of chihuahuas and have begun to ship them out of state.

Frozen baby mammoth 4/26/09 "Lyuba" has been preserved and insured in preparation for an international museum tour.

Bears in the news 4/24/09 India's last performing bear has been set free to live out its remaining days in a sanctuary in Bangalore. A zoo in Georgia houses a lion, a tiger, and a bear together in a single habitat.

Centenarians - and then some 3/26/09 The Georgia centenarian mentioned by President Obama in his election night speech has died at the age of 107. Meanwhile, a man in Maine has turned 108. And on the darker side, a Massachusetts centenarian has been killed, purportedly by her 98-year-old roomate, and a 100-year-old sex offender has been released from prison in New York.

Big bunny 2/24/09 Here's a story about a giant pet rabbit who has patterned its behavior after the family's cocker spaniel.

Killer chimpanzees 2/17/09 Monkeys trained in the martial arts revolted and turned on their trainer in China.

Marine creatures 2/15/09 An aquarium in Norfolk, U.K., has lowered the water levels in the turtle tank so the creatures can be given their seasonal and vitamin-rich treat of brussel sprouts without their resultant gassiness triggering overflow alarms. And since we're talking about turtles, here's one with 2 heads and 6 legs.

Abraham Lincoln's 200th birthday 2/12/09 The body of the former president of Cyprus has been stolen from his tomb.

Hedgehogs 1/8/09 Here's an overweight albino hedgehog on a swimming regimen to lose the ounces...

Rats! 12/20/09 A capybara - the world's largest rodent - has been accidentally crushed to death in a Canadian zoo.

Birds and dogs 12/15/08 In December, in Apalachicola, Florida, a man saw a medium-sized poodle snatched up by what appeared to be a chicken hawk, and a Pomeranian was carried off by an owl and dropped 2mi away, breaking her tail. Also in December - speaking of big birds - a hawk or falcon gots its talon stuck in the escalator of a metro station in Washington, D.C. and a hawk spent the night in a Wellington, Florida, hardware store [note that the manager's name is Quigley!]. Last year, professional golfer Tripp Isenhour got a lot of bad press and a fine for deliberately killing a red-shouldered hawk with a golf ball because it was interrupting the video he was shooting on an Orlando, Florida, course.

Space chimp 12/5/08 Russia's Cosmonautics Agency is in talks with an institute in the breakaway Georgian province of Abkhazia to send one of their 350 apes on a mission to Mars, looked after by a robot.

Yellowstone 11/21/08 Scientists have revealed that the seismic "plumbing" beneath Yellowstone National Park runs an astonishing 410 miles deep!

Follow-ups

Aquaria 11/23/09 Valencia, Spain, boasts not the largest tank, but the largest aquarium in Europe, the Oceanografic.

Stone/house 11/19/09 Reader Angelica Compton brought my attention to this article about an enormous boulder in a house in Margaretville, New York.

Follow-ups 11/16/09 The photograph in this post shows a Chinese man who has had half his body amputated. The operation is called a hemicorporectomy and here is more about why and how often it is performed.

Alligator urban legends 11/14/09 Here is a dead alligator photographed last week near Manaquiri, Brazil. And here is a crocodile photographed in Tanzania on top of the backs of some hippos who then attacked and killed it. Two men in Bangladesh were sentenced in absentia to 2 years in jail for beating and blinding a sacred crocodile at a shrine. You may still vote for your favorite entry in the Viewer's Choice Competition of National Geographic's International Photography Contest 2009, including #23, a striking close-up of an occupant of Kwena Crocodile Farm in South Africa. Lastly, fossils uncovered in the Sahara Desert reveal "a world full of crocodiles."

Placentas and more 11/12/09 A female photographer with phocomelia gave birth to an average-sized son, now 4 years old.

Forensic pathologists 11/8/09 In this post I featured some famous forensic pathologists. I was recently asked to write an editorial for Anil Aggrawal's Internet Journal of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology and discussed - in an article called "No 'Glass Ceiling'" - the increasing presence of women in the field.

Odd animals 11/4/09 Like Gemina at the Santa Barbara Zoo, a young giraffe named Amali has arrived at the Tulsa Zoo with a crooked neck.

One man band 10/24/09 It dawned on me to look up the history of another street musician - the organ grinder - and find out why they are always depicted with monkeys. They operated organs of various sizes on the street and were often looked down on: banned, accused of petty theft, and considered tone deaf. The monkeys were used to attract attention, performing tricks and collecting coins from patrons. The photo above shows an Afghan boy (obviously not an organ grinder!) with his pet monkey.

Winks and blinks 10/21/09 You have probably heard about Rom Houben, the Belgian man who was unable to communicate for 23 years until doctors recently discovered that he was not in a persistent vegetative state. Because he now types very quickly on a touch-screen keyboard with a finger cradled by a therapist, there are those who doubt the story.

Burqa 10/20/09 Barbie in a burqa is going on sale at a charity auction. While we're on the subject of things Muslim, here are 2 incredible photographs: Afghan children reading the Koran and pilgrims in Mecca before the start of this year's haj.

Dinosaur eggs 10/4/09 A rich accumulation of dinosaur bones has been found at the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument site in Utah.

Gossamer 9/27/09 A deadly Australian spider has invaded Japan, possibly in woodchips aboard a container ship.

Pig butchering 9/1/09 Two rats, 2 pigeons, a rooster, a rat, and some 20,000 buffalo have been slaughtered in Nepal in the world's biggest animal sacrifice.

Squid 7/17/09 The strange mating secrets of the squid are revealed in 2 articles, one from 2005 and the other from 2008. Here is an award-winning photo of a squid embryo.

Green eggs and ham 5/11/09 Two firetrucks carrying 15 firefighters responded to the smell of gas in Axedale, Australia, only to find it was due to the flatulence of a 120kg pig. In Ridgetown, Ontario, Canada, a small pig left in the washroom of a Tim Horton's donut shop has been reunited with its owner - a student at the local agriculture school. And here is an article about the intelligence of the pig.

Coal mining and caving 5/4/09 Like Floyd Collins, John Jones has died while exploring a cave despite aggressive attempts at rescue. Here's a piercing photo of some Ukrainian miners.

Dolly the sheep 5/2/09 The world's oldest sheep, 23-year-old Lucky, has died in Lake Bolac, Australia.

Chihuahuas in the weird news 5/2/09 A chihuahua name Shyla in Christchurch, New Zealand, has become a surrogate mother to 7 abandoned kittens.

Mastectomy tattoos 4/27/09 There is research afoot in Australia to enable women to regrow their breasts after mastectomy.

Raiding ancient Egypt 4/20/09 Twenty of the mummies in the Egyptian National Museum of Antiquities in Cairo have undergone CT-scanning that revealed signs of atherosclerosis.

Giants 4/17/09 A female American model over 6' 8" tall is being featured in an Australian men's magazine next to an average-sized model.

Octopus fossils 3/19/09 Here is a lovely photomicrograph of fossilized red sponge coral.

Kangaroo home invasion 3/15/09 A man in Melbourne, Australia, was attacked and the dog he was walking nearly drowned by a kangaroo they startled in the park. Meanwhile, a remote community in Australia's Northern Territory are being terrorized by 6,000 wild camels.

Octopi at it again! 3/8/09 My Dad and I learned on a documentary the other night that octopi live in every ocean, so I became curious what an Arctic octupus (scroll to the end of the link) and an Antarctic octopus look like. The rare "dumbo" octopus recently turned up in the Census of Marine Life.

Chilblains 2/27/09 The Guiness Book of World Records has recognized a 76-year-old Nepalese man as the oldest person to summit Mount Everest.

Double-muscled dog 1/30/09 This dalmation has no excuse for its size except its owner, who has been banned from owning dogs for 10 years.

Disturbing decapitations 1/23/09 Like the people on the Canadian bus, the riders of New York's D train were trapped on board with a homicidal maniac armed with a knife.

Ancient animals 2/19/09 A first edition of Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species is being auctioned after it was found in the guest washroom of a private home in Oxford, England. The gender of a tortoise estimated to be 75-100 years old has been mistaken for 50 years.

More mammoths 1/6/09 Researchers have found a fungus in mammoth poop that is explaining why they died out.

Auroras 12/23/08 To complement this image of the world with an aurora, here is a film of the planet showing the movement of the clouds.

Election Day! 11/4/08 In re: people-watching in the past - here is a mesmerizing film taken in San Francisco in 1905 to compare to 1901 footage from Washington, D.C., linked in this post.

Elephants 10/30/08 There is a link in this post to photos of animal embryos. Here is a photo of a 14-day-old transgenic mouse.

More mammoths

Back in October 2007, Daisy the dachshund found one heck of a bone! She found this 2 million-year-old mammoth bone embedded in the sand of the beach in Suffolk, England, where she was walking with owner Dennis Smith. It was identified as coming from a Southern Elephant, or archidiskodon meridionalis.

And it was reported in December 2006 that archaeologist Edward Breck Parkman thinks, and has a growing body of evidence to prove, that mammoths once used the rocks along the Sonoma Coast State Beach in California, to scratch their backs. He attributes the behavior to Columbian mammoths and mastodons that lived 15,000 to 30,000 years ago. He points out large surfaces of rock that have been buffed smooth!

Woolly mammoth

Next year for Halloween, BeBe (my scooter) and I are going to transform ourselves into a woolly mammoth! It's hard to believe that these extinct creatures were roaming North America as recently as 5,000 years ago. I have two mammoth specimens in my collection: a mammoth tooth and some mammoth hair. When I am asked if the hair is "real," I point out that it is fairly plentiful, since so many mammoths have been found intact in the permafrost, including a recent find in Siberia.