kiwibird
Editor, Senior Moderator
Next stop France for oldest baby mammoth
.by Patrick Filleux Patrick Filleux ? Mon Jun 21, 5:48 am ET
PARIS (AFP) ? Name: Khoma. Looks like: A baby mammoth. Age: somewhere above 50,000 years. Discovered in the permafrost of northern Siberia just last year, this rare example of prehistoric monster is on its way to Paris to be analysed, treated for the germs it's harbouring and eventually placed on display.
Mammoths -- slow, woolly and they didn't eat people -- have long had a good press. Just think Manny the caring mammoth in Hollywood's successful "Ice Age" movie franchise.
But this project may open another window on a distant past that is all too unfamiliar, what life was like for creatures of that time and the environment they shared with early humans.
....
Khoma -- it's unclear whether it's male or female -- died aged just six or seven months. It was discovered by a hunter in July 2009 in melting permafrost on the banks of the river Khroma some 2,000 kilometres (1,300 miles) north of Yakutsk near the Arctic Ocean.
The ice-encased body had been partially eaten by foxes which devoured the trunk and the top of its head.
....
Early microbiological analysis have shown Khoma is harbouring very old but potentially lethal germs, most probably anthracis, which can cause anthrax and black lung disease, thus demanding extreme precautions for its transport here and further analysis.
Khoma, still encased in ice, is enclosed in an isolated container and will be handled initially at a laboratory in Grenoble, which is the only one in the world specialised in gamma ray treatment.
.....
Afterwards, Khoma will be transported to Puy-en-Velay in central France for studies and a general autopsy before going on public display in an exhibition on mammoths and their prehistoric contemporaries
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100621/sc_afp/francerussiahistoryanimals#mwpphu-container
.by Patrick Filleux Patrick Filleux ? Mon Jun 21, 5:48 am ET
PARIS (AFP) ? Name: Khoma. Looks like: A baby mammoth. Age: somewhere above 50,000 years. Discovered in the permafrost of northern Siberia just last year, this rare example of prehistoric monster is on its way to Paris to be analysed, treated for the germs it's harbouring and eventually placed on display.
Mammoths -- slow, woolly and they didn't eat people -- have long had a good press. Just think Manny the caring mammoth in Hollywood's successful "Ice Age" movie franchise.
But this project may open another window on a distant past that is all too unfamiliar, what life was like for creatures of that time and the environment they shared with early humans.
....
Khoma -- it's unclear whether it's male or female -- died aged just six or seven months. It was discovered by a hunter in July 2009 in melting permafrost on the banks of the river Khroma some 2,000 kilometres (1,300 miles) north of Yakutsk near the Arctic Ocean.
The ice-encased body had been partially eaten by foxes which devoured the trunk and the top of its head.
....
Early microbiological analysis have shown Khoma is harbouring very old but potentially lethal germs, most probably anthracis, which can cause anthrax and black lung disease, thus demanding extreme precautions for its transport here and further analysis.
Khoma, still encased in ice, is enclosed in an isolated container and will be handled initially at a laboratory in Grenoble, which is the only one in the world specialised in gamma ray treatment.
.....
Afterwards, Khoma will be transported to Puy-en-Velay in central France for studies and a general autopsy before going on public display in an exhibition on mammoths and their prehistoric contemporaries
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100621/sc_afp/francerussiahistoryanimals#mwpphu-container