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

摘要

This paper reports the results of an in-depth analysis of the frozen remains of a woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) named Zhenya, which has been dated to 48,000 cal BP. The carcass, found near the mouth of the Yenisey River in eastern Siberia, was a juvenile male whose ontogenetic age at death was 8-10 AEY. Its reconstructed live height at the shoulders (pSH 227.4 cm) was the equal of some adult female woolly mammoths and extant elephants. The large stature and a flaked off tusk tip that matches breaks on tusks of male African elephants are indirect indications that this mammoth most likely had reached sexual maturity, had been expelled from its maternal herd, and had been in at least one fight with another male.