Claim:
A photo authentically shows the preserved remains of a baby mammoth that died about 30,000 years ago.
Judgement:
At the end of March 2024, a photo was shared on Facebook who claimed the remains of a baby mammoth that died an estimated 30,000 years ago anddiscovered by a gold prospector from Yukon“after being preserved for millennia in permafrost. Other iterations of the claim have been shared on social media platforms, including Instagram And Redditlike the after below received more than 50,000 votes:
Snopes determined through a Google keyword search that the photo had also been published in major news publications, including Smithsonian Magazine, Fox news And NBC News, to name a few. We have vetted the sources for the news articles and determined this claim to be “true.”
a joint press release published on June 24, 2022 by the Government of Yukon and the Canadian First Nation government Trʼondëk Hwëchʼin announced the discovery of the “nearly complete, mummified baby woolly mammoth” (archive) three days earlier.
Miners in the Eureka Creek region, located in the western part of the area two hours south of Dawson City, reportedly discovered the frozen mammal while digging through permafrost. The elders of Trʼondëk Hwëchʼin named the mammoth calf “Nun Cho Ga,” which means “large animal baby” in the Hän language.
Although the Yukon has an extensive fossil record of Ice Age animals that once roamed the region, mummified remains containing skin and hair are “rarely unearthed,” the statement said. Placer mining in the region uses water and gravity to uncover gold and other minerals; fossils are also discovered during these processes.
It is estimated that Nun Cho Ga was between 30 and 35 days old when she died. She is said to be the most complete mummified mammoth found in North America.
Yukon Geological Survey and geologists from the University of Calgary recovered the frozen mammoth. Through a quick assessment, they determined that it had been frozen during the Ice Age, more than 30,000 years ago. At the time, Nun Cho Ga is said to have lived alongside other roaming animals, including wild horses, cave lions and giant steppe bison.
“Nun cho ga is beautiful and one of the most incredible mummified Ice Age animals ever discovered in the world. I’m excited to get to know her better,” said Yukon paleontologist Grant Zazula in a rack at the time of discovery.
Nun Cho Ga is about the same size as the 42,000-year-old mummy woolly mammoth Lyuba, discovered in Siberia in 2007. Called a partial mammoth calf Effie was found in 1948 in a gold mine in interior Alaska.
“Something was looking at me!” said the discoverer of Nun Cho Ga in July 2022 technical briefingadding that he initially thought she was a buffalo.
“It looked like he had died a week ago,” another miner added.
By now you’ve probably heard of Nun cho ga, the mummified baby woolly mammoth found in the Klondike. But what you may not know is how to pronounce her name. Watch this helpful video https://t.co/IMe79Ut4xI for more information pic.twitter.com/XmssK6jUlL
— Yukon Beringia Interpretive Center (@yukonberingia) June 30, 2022
The woolly mammoth was a large, hairy elephant that lived on the gigantic ice age steppe of Yukon, according to the Yukon Beringia Interpretive Center. Woolly mammoths became extinct on mainland North America about 12,000 years ago, as the climate warmed during the last ice age. However, remote Arctic islands off the coast of Siberia were home to woolly mammoths until about 4,000 years ago.
It is believed that woolly mammoths came to North America via Asia Bering Land Bridgethat once connected the continents.
After nearly two years in the freezer, No Cho Ga was transferred to the Canadian Conservation Institute in Ottawa for preservation Canadian broadcaster reported March 2024. Yukon News reported at a time when the mammoth’s remains would eventually be repatriated to the traditional territory where it was excavated.
Sources:
“Baby mammoth unearthed in Yukon has arrived in Ottawa.” Yukon NewsMarch 9, 2024, https://www.yukon-news.com/news/baby-mammoth-unearthed-in-yukon-has-arrived-in-ottawa-7327813.
“Eureka Crk Rd · Yukon Y0B 1G0, Canada.” Eureka Crk Rd · Yukon Y0B 1G0, Canada, https://www.google.com/maps/place/Eureka+Crk+Rd,+Yukon+Y0B+1G0,+Canada/@63.4654512,-144.1072442,5z/data=!4m6!3m5!1s0x514ed21ea54c3b79:0x47cbe6d60376d36! 8m2!3d63.5829919!4d-138.8322623!16s%2Fg%2F11vc16j28m?entry=ttu. Accessed April 9, 2024.
“Https://Twitter.Com/Yukonberingia/Status/1542573123039399937?Lang=nl.” X (formerly Twitter), https://twitter.com/yukonberingia/status/1542573123039399937?lang=en. Accessed April 9, 2024.
Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/egyptology___/p/C1cBNF8LmcF/?img_index=1. Accessed April 9, 2024.
“Intact Woolly Mammoth Baby Discovered in Northwest Canada.” NBC NewsJune 27, 2022, https://www.nbcnews.com/science/science-news/intact-wooly-mammoth-baby-uncovered-northwestern-canada-rcna35521.
Magazine, Smithsonian and Diane Selkirk. “Well-preserved, 30,000-year-old baby woolly mammoth emerges from Yukon permafrost.” Smithsonian Magazine, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/well-preserved-30000-year-old-baby-woolly-mammoth-emerges-from-yukon-permafrost-180980388/. Accessed April 9, 2024.
“Mammoth Skeleton.” American Natural History Museum, https://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/permanent/advanced-mammals/mammoth. Accessed April 9, 2024.
Mummified baby woolly mammoth found by prospector in Klondike. June 24, 2022, https://yukon.ca/en/news/mummified-baby-woolly-mammoth-found-gold-miner-klondike.
News ·, CBC “‘Nun Cho Ga’, rare baby mammoth found in Yukon, heads to Ottawa | CBC News.” CBCMarch 2, 2024, https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/yukon-baby-mammoth-goes-to-ottawa-1.7131965.
News, opening hours Mon-Wed: 9am-9pm Thurs-Sun: 9am-5pm Address 1. William StreetSydney NSW 2010 Australia Phone +61 2. 9320 6000 www australian museum Copyright ©. 2024 The Australian Museum ABN 85 407 224 698 View Museum. “The Story of Baby Lyuba.” The Australian Museum, https://australian.museum/blog/museullaneous/the-story-of-baby-lyuba/australian.museum/blog/museullaneous/the-story-of-baby-lyuba/. Accessed April 9, 2024.
Nome, mailing address: PO Box 220 and AK 99762 Phone: 907-443-2522 Contact us. The Bering Land Bridge Theory – Bering Land Bridge National Preserve (US National Park Service). https://www.nps.gov/bela/learn/historyculture/the-bering-land-bridge-theory.htm. Accessed April 9, 2024.
“Yukon, Canada, miners find 30,000-year-old mummified baby woolly mammoth.” Fox newsJune 28, 2022, https://www.foxnews.com/science/baby-mammoth-discovered-yukon-canada.
https://m.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=940081954459387&set=a.695273785606873&type=3. Accessed April 9, 2024.