Discover the oldest mammoth mummy

Found in permanently frozen land south of Siberia, the mammoth mummy of Khroma is an extremely rare historical specimen.

Mammoths, as we often see on science fiction programs or movies, are gentle, slow and do not eat humans. However, the finding may open a new path to the developmental past of this species, with life not as human thought, especially in the period of ancient dark people.

Khoma, the elephant's name, is one of six mummies found in Siberia during the past 200 years. According to the French zoologist, Mr. Bernad Buigues, for mummies of this type, we cannot apply the 14th carbon isotope method to date, it only gives accuracy for less than 50,000 year. For a longer period of time, this method proved inaccurate.

According to the initial analysis, scientists have not determined, Khoma is a male or female elephant, but died when it was about 6-7 months old. A hunter found it when the permafrost melted on the banks of the Khroma River, about 2,000 km north of Yakutsk (near the Arctic Ocean). A head and nozzle of the mammoth was accused of snow.

Pictures of mammoth mummies.

By the initial method of microbiological analysis, scientists found, it is possible, Khoma infected with certain diseases, possibly anthrax, because their lungs are black. This requires a strict precaution for contacting mummies to prevent spread and for subsequent studies.

Khoma is now stored in ice, stored in a special container and sent to a laboratory in Grenoble, the only place to have a gamma-ray diagnosis. This technique is heavily used for archaeological or prehistoric objects.

Nuclear physicist Laurent Cortella said: 'We used gamma rays to study Ramsess II mummy in 1977. This mummy has a lifespan of less than 1,800 years and is attacked by a fungus. For mammoth mummies, it is affected by the projection of 20,000 gamma rays during three or four days'.

Cortella added: 'We have never dealt with objects or fossils excavated from permanently frozen areas' . After analysis, Khoma will move to Puy-en-Valley, the center of France for research and dissection for further research.

Source: AFP