Mummified remains of extinct mammoth discovered in Canada’s Klondike

CAIRO – 26 June 2022: Paleontologists announced a rare discovery of the mummified remains of an almost complete woolly mammoth burial in the gold fields of Klondike, in the far north of Canada.

Paleontologist Grant Zazula said in a statement that the animal was "a remarkable and one of the most surprising Ice Age mummified animals ever discovered in the world."

Zazula expressed his enthusiasm to learn more about this baby mammoth. It is most likely a female named "Nun cho ga", meaning "baby of a huge animal" in the Aboriginal language, with intact skin and hair. The remains were found by digging up permafrost south of Dawson in Yukon Territory, on the border with the US state of Alaska.

It is likely that this animal died more than 30,000 years ago, when woolly mammoths, wild horses, cave lions and giant bison roamed the region. This is the first semi-complete mummified mammoth found in such a good state of preservation in North America.

A portion of the remains of a baby mammoth named "Effie" was found in 1948 in a gold mine in Alaska, in addition to another, 42,000-year-old mummified animal in Siberia in 2007 that was named "Lyuba". It was the same size as the mammoth whose remains were recently discovered.

The Yukon government was quoted by AFP as saying the territory is known worldwide for its Ice Age animal fossils, but "mummified remains with skin and animal fur" have rarely been discovered.