An Intact Mummified Baby Woolly Mammoth Was Found And It Is Pretty Amazing
We knew that the woolly mammoth existed, thanks to skeletal remains, but miners in Canada just discovered a near perfect mummified baby woolly mammoth.
This is the most complete woolly mammoth that has ever been discovered, and how cool is that?!?
This little baby woolly mammoth — which happens to be a female — even has intact toenails, hair, trunk, hide, and even intestines.
I’m sorry, but this is cool AF!!
The last time an infant mummified woolly mammoth was found was in 2007 by people in Siberia.
According to a Yukon News Release, gold miners found this little girl’s mummified body in Eureka Creek, which is part of the Trʼondëk Hwëchʼin, a traditional territory in Yukon, Canada.
She was hanging out in the permafrost that the miners were excavating, and they estimate this sweet girl is about 30,000 years old.
This Little Baby Woolly Mammoth Was Named Nun Cho Ga
Trʼondëk Hwëchʼin Elders named her “Nun cho ga, meaning ‘big baby animal’ in the Hän language.”
There have been a ton of fossil discoveries in the Yukon — it is actually world-renowned for ice-age animal fossils. BUT, they don’t often find mummified bodies of actual ice-age animals.
In the months to come, Trʼondëk Hwëchʼin and the Government of Yukon will work together to respectfully preserve and learn more about Nun cho ga and share these stories and information with the community of Dawson City, residents of the Yukon and the global scientific community.
Yukon News Release
Paleontologists often wait a lifetime to stumble upon a discovery of this magnitude. Some, in fact, never find one.
BUT, that dream has come true for the paleontologists working up in the Yukon right now.
That dream came true today. Nun cho ga is beautiful and one of the most incredible mummified ice age animals ever discovered in the world. I am excited to get to know her more.
Dr. Grant Zazula, Yukon Paleontologist
Nun cho ga’s discovery is the “first near complete and best-preserved mummified woolly mammoth found in North America.”
What do you think of Nun cho ga? Pretty amazing, right?!?