The Yukon government said the woolly mammoth, dubbed Nun cho ga, or ‘big animal baby’, is the most complete and best-preserved specimen found in North America to date
On June 21, Jeff Bond, a manager with the Yukon Geological Survey, was in Dawson City and preparing to do some field work with visiting colleagues when he got a call from the territory’s paleontologist, Greg Zazula, who is based Whitehorse.
His account, together with those of the miners and members of the Trʼondek Hwechʼin First Nation, on whose traditional territory the mammoth was found, added new details to the story of the discovery.The mammoth, a female, has been dubbed Nun cho ga, a name that translates to “big animal baby” in the Han language of the region. Measuring only 1.4 metres, it is estimated to have been about 30 to 35 days old when it died, likely after it became mired and drowned at the edge of a river.
“That gives us some clues that [the age of the mammoth] is going to be in the 30,000- to 40,000-year-old time frame,” he said, adding that it corresponds to a relatively warmer period between cold stretches during the Ice Age. Dr. MacPhee added that Nun cho ga joins a handful of similar specimens found in Siberia that collectively can shed light on various aspects of mammoth growth, including teeth and vital organs.
“Mummies can provide dietary information through stomach contents and chemical signatures from their tissues such as hair, skin, and body fat, detailed genetic information, and data on the diseases they experienced,” she said.
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