Live Science reported a shocking case. Canadian gold miners discovered a 40,000-year-old mummy mammoth while prospecting for gold. The excited gold miners dug it out of the melting tundra because Its value is comparable to that of dozens of kilograms of gold, and may even be higher!
But no one may know that as more and more animals are unearthed in the tundra , humans may be facing an unprecedented crisis!
Melting permafrost in Siberia Another 30,000-year-old mammoth has been discovered
Not long ago, workers from the Treadstone Mining Company dug into the permafrost in the Klondike Goldfields Eureka Creek on the traditional territory of Trʼondëk Hwëchʼin. When digging the excavation face, the worker operating the small excavation equipment was about to put down the second shovel and felt that there seemed to be an obstacle.
seemed to be a corpse. He ran over and touched it. It seemed that it was still in some kind of non-decomposed state. It was probably the remains of a prehistoric animal. This made the workers excited. They often work in the Yukon Territory of Canada. Workers are particularly sensitive to prehistoric animals. Once a well-preserved animal is found, scientists will rush to buy it and study it, which is much more valuable than gold.
Workers carefully dug out this unknown animal from the tundra. Most of the structures are in good shape. It looks like an elephant. Obviously modern elephants will not reach the Yukon Territory in northern Canada. , it is too cold here for elephants living in the subtropics, so this animal that looks like an elephant should be a mammoth!
Experts from Treadstone Mining Company received the animal's carcass and it was sent to the company's local headquarters. After thawing, it was found that most of the animal's body was still intact, and the skin and muscles were very elastic. From the looks of it, this is a mammoth cub. It must have met with misfortune soon after birth!
After the news spread, Canada's top paleontologists came to the biological laboratory of Treadstone Mining Company and conducted a detailed investigation. They found that the 1.4-meter-long mammoth cub was a female and had only One month, the time of death was about 42,000 years ago. Scientists named this mammoth "Nun cho ga", which means "big baby animal".
It is very likely that it fell into the mud when crossing the swamp. Its mother must have tried to save it, but was unable to do anything! The arrival of the animal, which was soon covered by the first autumn snow and finally frozen in the permafrost layer , traveled through time and space to the present day, will bring surprises to scientists, but of course it may also bring disaster.
Mammoth: A prehistoric giant that suddenly disappeared in the long river of history.
The whole body of the mammoth was covered with long brown hairs. The incisors were curved upward. Apart from the long hair, they were very similar to modern elephants. The mammoth originated in Africa , distributed in the northern areas of Europe, Asia, and North America in the early Pleistocene, especially in the tundra, with long body hair and a thick layer of fat to insulate from the cold. From 5 million years ago It was extinct until thousands of years ago.
There are several theories for the disappearance of the mammoth. Some data believe that the climate in the northern hemisphere changed drastically during the Younger Dryas period more than 10,000 years ago. The transition from the warm and humid period to the glacial period again led to the extinction of the mammoth. However, some paleontologists believe that , human activities are more likely to be the main driver of the extinction of mammoths.
Why are scientists interested in ancient creatures?
Scientists have always been able to study paleontology through fossils. For example, there are countless dinosaur fossils currently being excavated, but scientists are not even sure whether dinosaurs had hair, because these tissues can easily disappear in the process of forming fossils.
However, mammoths are different. Their area was in the glaciation period tens of thousands of years ago. After death, they are easily covered by ice and snow. Moreover, they are located in high latitudes. After being buried in the permafrost, they will form a natural refrigerator. Until someone digs them up.
Due to the excellent low-temperature preservation effect of the permafrost, the thawed mammoths often look like they did shortly after death. Whether it is skin, muscles, or hair, it is even possible to extract the parasitized mammoths tens of thousands of years ago. A parasite that eats plants and seeds without having time to digest them.
The meat of prehistoric animals is said to be edible. Paleontologist Xing Lida once tasted it.
Scientists can establish an ecological environment at that time based on the substances extracted from a mammoth, plus the DNA of various animals and plants. Scientists It can outline their evolutionary context, so in the eyes of scientists, this mammoth is not just an animal, but a window into the environment and ecology tens of thousands of years ago. Around this mammoth, scientists may even Publish many high-quality SCI papers, and its value cannot be measured in money in many cases.
"As an Ice Age paleontologist, it has been one of my lifelong dreams to come face to face with a real mammoth.' That dream came true today. Nun Cho ga is beautiful and one of the most incredible mummified Ice Age animals ever discovered. I'm excited to learn more about her
Brian McCaughan of Treadstone Mining who discovered the mammoth. He said: "In a person's life, there will be one thing that is the most outstanding. I can guarantee you that this is the most outstanding thing in my life." "
June 24, 2022, Yukon Online News released this great discovery, Over the next few months, Trʼondëk Hwëchʼin and the Yukon Government will work together to respectfully protect and understand Nun cho ga , and share these stories and information with the Dawson City community, Yukon residents, and the global scientific community
It’s time for humans to be alert: N species of animals have been discovered as the permafrost melts
Paleontologists are working to find preserved prehistoric animals. Animals are cheering because this not only represents the addition of a complete ecology tens of thousands of years ago, but will also represent a small climax in their personal academic careers. However, climatologists and microbiologists are worried about another crisis.
The melting tundra: the result and driver of climate change
Although the mammoth in the Yukon was not the result of global warming, many animals recently discovered in the northern hemisphere’s tundra were exposed to global warming. Found, such as:
- In May 2007, Nenets reindeer breeder and hunter Yuri Khudi and his three sons discovered a 41,800-year-old mammoth on the Yamal Peninsula in the Russian Arctic, named Lyuba by scientists. , the structure is very well preserved;
- In 2011, the Yukagir tribe in northern Siberia discovered the remains of a complete bison. Like Lyuba, it was favored by scientists because of its very complete internal structure;
- In March 2015, a hunter discovered the remains of a bison in the Sakha Republic of Siberia. The remains of a young woolly rhinoceros ( woolly rhinoceros ) were found by the Semyulyakh River. They were discovered on the ground after the tundra melted;
- In September 2017, a man was searching for mammoth tusks in Eastern Siberia A Russian man accidentally discovered a cave lion from the Ice Age. The cold permafrost preserved it for about 30,000 years. It was only a week old when it died;
- In August 2018, paleontologists were on an expedition to Yakku in eastern Siberia. Special discovered the mummy of a prehistoric pony. According to estimates, it lived about 30,000 to 40,000 to 40,000 years ago;
More and more ancient creatures have been unearthed, telling scientists that the tundra in the Arctic region is experiencing unusual disasters. ! Permafrost is a layer of permafrost underground in high latitudes or high altitude areas. Its thickness ranges from tens of centimeters to tens of meters. The global frozen soil area exceeds 5.9 million square kilometers, most of which are located in the northern hemisphere.
The temperature of the permafrost zone is low and the moisture content is relatively high. Generations of plants wither and are buried underground to become permafrost. A large amount of organic carbon is sealed in the permafrost zone. Due to the low temperature, there is little microbial activity. Hundreds of thousands of It has been preserved underground almost intact for many years!
According to scientists’ estimates, the organic carbon reserves in the global permafrost are twice the carbon content in the atmosphere. Therefore, scientists should be more nervous when the permafrost is affected by global warming, because global warming will accelerate the permafrost. Melting, and the melting of permafrost will accelerate global warming. Once this vicious cycle is formed, even if the global emission reduction target in the "Paris Agreement" is reached, the trend of global warming will still be unstoppable.
Ancient microorganisms: The time machine in the tundra travels to the present
In addition to the relatively "distant" topic of global warming, what is even more terrifying is the microorganisms carried by these unearthed animals. For now, we have antibiotics to deal with bacteria. To deal with viruses, we rely on the immune system or vaccines. So far, humans are still in a state of terrifying balance with bacteria and viruses.
But if there is a super bacteria or virus, but humans have no resistance, what should we do? Human beings are currently exposed to bacteria and viruses in the modern environment. However, the human immune system may not be able to protect against ancient bacteria and viruses that traveled from tens of thousands of years ago to modern times. What should we do?
There may be nothing you can do! We can only wait for new antibiotics and the creation of new vaccines, and this takes time! Just like COVID-19, which is currently spreading around the world, it keeps spreading and mutating! Vaccines have been developed generation after generation, but they cannot prevent infection and can only reduce the rate of severe illness. It is really terrible.
Ancient bacteria and viruses: have been discovered
In 2014, French scientist Claverie published a paper describing a giant virus 30,000 years ago, which was 10 times larger than conventional viruses. It was discovered in the Siberian permafrost. layer, and is still contagious after resurrection!
In 2015, a team of American and Chinese scientists drilled into ice core samples from glaciers and found 28 viruses that are not found in modern times. Although these viruses are not threatening to humans, the problem is the possibility that large areas of permafrost will melt in the future. Whether viruses that affect humans will emerge is what worries us the most.
The 2016 anthrax outbreak in Siberia killed more than 2,000 reindeer and caused 96 people to be hospitalized. According to Russian expert investigations, these anthrax spores came from a reindeer carcass and were released into the surrounding environment due to warm weather and thawing, infecting anyone. animal.
Are the tundra animals that are constantly being discovered a good thing or a bad thing? Should humans be wary?
