Mammoth remains possibly butchered by human hunters found on Arctic Island near Siberia
The 20,000-year-old remains of a mammoth bear signs of human hunting and butchery.
Part of the mammoth skeleton found by the Russian researchers. Credit: I.S. Pavlov.
Russian paleontologists were stunned by the discovery of an almost complete mammoth skeleton on Kotelny Island, located in the Arctic close to the Siberian coast, which had thousands of cut marks on it. These marks, as well as stone objects embedded within some of the fossils, indicate that the ancient beast might have been slain and butchered by human hunters.
Scientists Find Mammoth Seemingly Butchered by Humans on Arctic Island
Jeanne Timmons
A snowmobile is parked next to a building at the Russian northern military base on Kotelny island.
Photo: Maxime Popov / AFP (Getty Images)
Kotelny Island sits high up in the Arctic, off the coast of Northern Siberia. It’s cold and barren now, mostly absent of humans. But over 20,000 years ago, this island was home to huge megafauna. Melting permafrost is exposing evidence of this past life, including three large woolly mammoth skeletons discovered there in 2019.
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One of those skeletons, named the Pavlov mammoth after the man who first studied it, appears to have been butchered by ancient hunters. We can imagine them, huddled around an enormous carcass, cutting through tangles of fur and thick skin towards the sinew. We might even hear the grunts of their efforts it’s no easy task and see their breath in the bitter cold. What was once a substantial woolly mammoth had fallen.