Young Butchered Mammoth Discovered In Siberia

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Young Butchered Mammoth Discovered In Siberia

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday April 4, 2012 @09:20AM from the oldest-white-meat dept.

Velcroman1 writes "A juvenile mammoth, nicknamed 'Yuka,' was found entombed in Siberian ice near the shores of the Arctic Ocean and shows signs of being cut open by ancient people. The remarkably well preserved frozen carcass was discovered in Siberia as part of a BBC/Discovery Channel-funded expedition and is believed to be at least 10,000 years old, if not older. If further study confirms the preliminary findings, it would be the first mammoth carcass revealing signs of human interaction in the region. The carcass is in such good shape that much of its flesh is still intact, retaining its pink color. The blonde-red hue of Yuka's woolly coat also remains."

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Buffet? by p0p0 · 2012-04-04 09:21 · Score: 5, Funny

So which researcher gets the first taste?
1. Re:Buffet? by syntheticmemory · 2012-04-04 09:27 · Score: 0
  
  The dog went for it.....
2. Re:Buffet? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-04-04 09:57 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  There were companies in the US that could turn this into finely textured mammoth meat
3. Re:Buffet? by Ihmhi · 2012-04-04 10:05 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  For those not in the know, this already happened many, many years ago:
  
  One of the best-documented accounts of a prehistoric meal comes at the end of Frozen Fauna of the Mammoth Steppe (1990), by Alaska zoology professor Dale Guthrie. After successfully unearthing and preserving "Blue Babe," a 36,000-year-old steppe bison found near Fairbanks in 1979, Guthrie's team celebrates by simmering some leftover flesh from Babe's neck "in a pot of stock and vegetables." The author reports that "the meat was well aged but still a little tough, and it gave the stew a strong Pleistocene aroma." Now, I'm all for scientific esprit de corps, and I'm not by nature an incurious sort, but I'll say right now I don't see the appeal. Let's keep it simple: frozen meat from tundra = specimen; frozen meat from freezer = dinner. Study the mammoths and eat the burgers, and anyone who craves that great prehistoric taste can wash 'em down with Tab.
  
  --
  Random Thoughts From A Diseased Mind (Not For Dummies)
4. Re:Buffet? by Em+Adespoton · 2012-04-04 10:43 · Score: 2
  
  Where does that author think that zoologists keep their specimens after retrieving them? Do they really need to take the extra steppe?
5. Re:Buffet? by buchner.johannes · 2012-04-04 11:01 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  For those not in the know, this already happened many, many years ago:
  
  One of the best-documented accounts of a prehistoric meal comes at the end of Frozen Fauna of the Mammoth Steppe (1990), by Alaska zoology professor Dale Guthrie. After successfully unearthing and preserving "Blue Babe," a 36,000-year-old steppe bison found near Fairbanks in 1979, Guthrie's team celebrates by simmering some leftover flesh from Babe's neck "in a pot of stock and vegetables." The author reports that "the meat was well aged but still a little tough, and it gave the stew a strong Pleistocene aroma." Now, I'm all for scientific esprit de corps, and I'm not by nature an incurious sort, but I'll say right now I don't see the appeal. Let's keep it simple: frozen meat from tundra = specimen; frozen meat from freezer = dinner. Study the mammoths and eat the burgers, and anyone who craves that great prehistoric taste can wash 'em down with Tab.
  Maybe they left it over 10.000 years ago because it wasn't the best meat?
  See also this clip from QI on tortoise extinction by too-hungry explorers.
  
  --
  NB: The message above might reflect my opinion right now, but not necessarily tomorrow or next year.
6. Re:Buffet? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-04-04 11:25 · Score: 0
  
  You know, I kind of had the same thought. Could we thaw this beast out and make burgers, and what would a mammoth burger taste like?
7. Re:Buffet? by Sussurros · 2012-04-04 12:22 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  Aleksandr Solzhenitsin wrote about starving prisoners in a Soviet Gulag finding a frozen mammoth in Siberia and eaiting if before the guards could take it away from them. He also mentions them eating fish and salamanders that had been frozen for thousands of years.
  
  --
  I said - don't look Ethel!..., but it was too late..., she'd already looked.
8. Re:Buffet? by NotQuiteReal · 2012-04-04 13:25 · Score: 1
  
  what would a mammoth burger taste like?
  
  I would guess, something like an elephant burger.
  
  --
  This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
9. Re:Buffet? by Xest · 2012-04-04 22:46 · Score: 2
  
  So the moral of the story is that rather than bin some of that meat that's been in my freezer a little too long I should just leave it in even longer, say, another 30,000 years, and it'll become edible again?
10. Re:Buffet? by RevSpaminator · 2012-04-05 11:50 · Score: 1
  
  Do you think the meat has freezer burn?
But... by GmExtremacy · 2012-04-04 09:23 · Score: 1, Funny

The Earth is only 6,000 years old! Therefore, this doesn't exist. Or God just planted evidence to test our faith.
1. Re:But... by syntheticmemory · 2012-04-04 09:25 · Score: 1, Insightful
  
  And it continues to be 6000 years old, no matter how much time passes. God's true believers move the goalpost.
2. Re:But... by CanHasDIY · 2012-04-04 09:52 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  Or God just planted evidence to test our faith.
  Oblig:
  
  "... I think God put you here to test my faith, dude."
  
  - Bill Hicks, R.I.P.
  
  --
  An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
3. Re:But... by Capt.DrumkenBum · 2012-04-04 10:03 · Score: 1, Flamebait
  
  "... I think God put you here to test my faith, dude."
  My theory is god put it here just to screw with us. I figure he was sucking back a few brews with his friends while putting together the universe. (Much like an Ikea kit.) when he thought this will f**k them up. I will stick some bones in the ground. It will be hilarious! Of course all his friends agreed with him because he was buying the beer.
  
  --
  If I were God, wouldn't I protect my churches from acts of me?
4. Re:But... by ColdWetDog · 2012-04-04 10:09 · Score: 2
  
  If it was like an Ikea kit, it would explain a number of things.
  He's still probably trying to read the directions.
  
  --
  Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
5. Re:But... by RussR42 · 2012-04-04 10:28 · Score: 0
  
  Reminds me of this.
6. Re:But... by buchner.johannes · 2012-04-04 10:56 · Score: 0
  
  I don't understand why people who obviously don't believe this repost the opinion of others. We just waste effort recircling the same argument again and again.
  Our environment defines our thinking. People will assume positions if they see that it is possible to have it. If we move the whole discussion so that this position is not part of it anymore, it will be harder to write such a statement.
  Some examples: (1) Right-extremist hate speech on foreigners and holocaust-denying makes it possible for otherwise average people to attain racist, fanatic and violent attitudes and don't think of themselves as the odd ones out. (2) 9/11 made it possible for people in the West to believe they can be attacked everywhere anytime.
  If you want to avoid such extremes, shape the environment of the discussion that they are the odd ones out.
  If you want to stick to your statement as ridicule offending Christians who interpret the Bible too literally despite the inconsistencies or intent, I suggest "The Earth is only 6,000 years old! In fact the bible says Jesus rode that mammoth before he saw the donkey."
  
  --
  NB: The message above might reflect my opinion right now, but not necessarily tomorrow or next year.
7. Re:But... by GmExtremacy · 2012-04-04 11:22 · Score: 1
  
  I don't understand why people who obviously don't believe this repost the opinion of others.
  It's just a joke.
8. Re:But... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-04-04 12:31 · Score: 0
  
  I don't think "year" means what they think it means.
9. Re:But... by Mindcontrolled · 2012-04-04 20:38 · Score: 1
  
  Cthulhu / Dagon 2012 Why vote for the lesser of two evils?
  No way Dagon will get the Republican nomination - he's way too moderate. Cthulhu / Nyarlathothep, that's the ticket!
  
  --
  Ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant.
10. Re:But... by CdBee · 2012-04-05 22:59 · Score: 1
  
  I suspect that neither "believe" nor "think" mean what they understand them as, either....
  
  --
  I have been a user for about 10 years. This ends Feb 2014. The site's been ruined. I'm off. Dice, FU
Taste? by scharkalvin · 2012-04-04 09:25 · Score: 1, Funny

Did they taste it? Does it taste like chicke?
1. Re:Taste? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-04-04 09:27 · Score: 0
  
  Posts like yours make me so proud to be human. Clone that bitch and let's BBQ!
2. Re:Taste? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-04-04 09:42 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  Did they taste it? Does it taste like chicke?
  Nope - elephant
3. Re:Taste? by GoodNewsJimDotCom · 2012-04-04 09:43 · Score: 2
  
  Can't be much older than what I have in my freezer.
  
  --
  God spoke to me
4. Re:Taste? by Kjella · 2012-04-04 09:45 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  Probably not. The closest living relative would be the elephant, and a quick googling suggests that tastes more like moose/elk or buffalo and not like chicken at all. But even being in the deep freezer I think 10,000 years is a little past the "best before" date...
  
  --
  Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
5. Re:Taste? by mcneely.mike · 2012-04-04 10:09 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Did they taste it? Does it taste like chicke?
  Nope - elephant
  Nope - elephan
  FTFY
  
  --
  soylentnews.org Go there to enjoy the people!
6. Re:Taste? by peragrin · 2012-04-04 13:50 · Score: 1
  
  every old person knows it was always better "back then" therefore nothing actually spoils.
  
  --
  i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
Darn Poachers by Normal+Dan · 2012-04-04 09:29 · Score: 3, Funny

We need to find who's responsible for this.

--
A unique way to learn a language: http://languageloom.com
1. Re:Darn Poachers by Anonymous Coward · 2012-04-04 09:54 · Score: 0
  
  Why didn't anyone think of the Mammoth children?!
2. Re:Darn Poachers by tomhath · 2012-04-04 14:36 · Score: 2
  
  Sounds like they did think of them, as a main course.
Oh the humanity! by cvtan · 2012-04-04 09:35 · Score: 4, Funny

Those ancient people cut up the LAST baby mammoth on Earth. Bastards!

--
Sorry, but gray text on gray background is making my eyes bleed.
Yuka by Anonymous Coward · 2012-04-04 09:36 · Score: 0

It's named Yuka. Like, Yuka manned an I/O bay.
what a waste by ozduo · 2012-04-04 09:36 · Score: 5, Funny

even 10,000 years ago you couldn't get junior to finish his meal when there were starving neanderthals on the next continent

--
I got to the chocolate box before you, that's why the hard ones have teeth marks.
gamy by CosaNostra+Pizza+Inc · 2012-04-04 09:37 · Score: 0

Sounds like it would taste gamy...Maybe it should be marinated in some prehistoric plumb sauce.
1. Re:gamy by Anonymous Coward · 2012-04-04 09:46 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  Sounds like it would taste gamy...Maybe it should be marinated in some prehistoric plumb sauce.
  Naah. Just homogenize it, centrifuge it, then extrude it at high pressure through a stream of ammonia gas and mix it with hamburger meat. No one will know the difference!
2. Re:gamy by CanHasDIY · 2012-04-04 09:54 · Score: 1
  
  ...some prehistoric plumb sauce.
  I prefer prehistoric square sauce myself.
  
  --
  An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
This story gets better with retelling by IntentionalStance · 2012-04-04 09:37 · Score: 5, Funny

The quote from the BBC article says "Even more interesting, there are hints that humans may have taken over the kill at an early stage."
The headline for the BBC article "Woolly mammoth carcass may have been cut into by humans"
The headline of the linked story "YOUNG MAMMOTH LIKELY BUTCHERED BY HUMANS"
I especially like the excited all-caps style
1. Re:This story gets better with retelling by tibit · 2012-04-04 09:43 · Score: 1
  
  may have been cut into by humans
  The fuck? Most of the good meat and plenty of bones have been removed, and they say "may have been"?!
  
  --
  A successful API design takes a mixture of software design and pedagogy.
2. Re:This story gets better with retelling by Anonymous Coward · 2012-04-04 09:48 · Score: 1
  
  Next, we'll be hearing about how it was a War Mammoth, felled in the third wave of the Neanderthal Wars when the eskimos tried to overrun Siberia but were repulsed by a daring counteroffensive.
3. Re:This story gets better with retelling by Deadstick · 2012-04-04 10:02 · Score: 2
  
  We aren't the only critters who eat critters.
4. Re:This story gets better with retelling by Moheeheeko · 2012-04-04 10:04 · Score: 0
  
  We are the only critters who are picky about what part of critters we eat.
5. Re:This story gets better with retelling by Moheeheeko · 2012-04-04 10:10 · Score: 1
  
  Fund it
6. Re:This story gets better with retelling by Anonymous Coward · 2012-04-04 10:13 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  Not true. Read about grizzly bears and salmon.
7. Re:This story gets better with retelling by avonhungen · 2012-04-04 10:13 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  You know, except for all the other animals that are picky too...
  Ex. Orcas, as widely described (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killer_whales_of_Eden,_Australia)
8. Re:This story gets better with retelling by Anonymous Coward · 2012-04-04 10:33 · Score: 0
  
  may have been cut into by humans
  The fuck? Most of the good meat and plenty of bones have been removed, and they say "may have been"?!
  may have been by humans is what they said. as in, maybe something else removed meat and bones. like sasquatch. or your mother.
9. Re:This story gets better with retelling by turkeyfeathers · 2012-04-04 12:04 · Score: 1
  
  Not true. My dog prefers pork chops to pig ears.
10. Re:This story gets better with retelling by steelfood · 2012-04-04 14:22 · Score: 1
  
  Little did the BBC reporters know that the butchering had actually been done by the scientists.
  On the other hand, the Slashdot headline might just be more accurate than TFA's headline for once. Not sure which one is more likely.
  
  --
  "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."
11. Re:This story gets better with retelling by ChunderDownunder · 2012-04-04 15:17 · Score: 1
  
  Well closer to our own time, Hannibal did cross the alps. Perhaps due to global warming a French/Italian farmer might uncover a 3rd century BCE elephant from the snow!
12. Re:This story gets better with retelling by dylan_- · 2012-04-04 22:14 · Score: 2
  
  You know, except for all the other animals that are picky too... Ex. Orcas, as widely described
  I'm no paleontologist, but I'm pretty sure this mammoth wasn't eaten by Orcas. Could have been a Great White, I suppose...
  
  --
  Igor Presnyakov stole my hat
13. Re:This story gets better with retelling by silentcoder · 2012-04-04 23:03 · Score: 1
  
  Wrong.
  There are many others. African Leopards for example are unique among the big cats for refusing to eat fur. Leopards actually sit for hours plucking the fur from their pray before beginning to eat them.
  
  --
  Unicode killed the ASCII-art *
14. Re:This story gets better with retelling by Deadstick · 2012-04-05 02:50 · Score: 1
  
  Je crois que non. Our late cat Rasputin liked every part of a mouse but the liver...as you could learn to your dismay if you went out on the patio barefoot.
15. Re:This story gets better with retelling by Patch86 · 2012-04-07 00:58 · Score: 1
  
  Actually (assuming this is the same as the documentary on the BBC a few days ago- I'm not going to RTFA to find out), no meat was taken. Just the skull, tusks and a few other bones. Very mysterious.
Global Warming by Anonymous Coward · 2012-04-04 09:38 · Score: 0

Damn that global warming ... wait ... shit.
But..... by Sketchly · 2012-04-04 09:46 · Score: 1

How do they know it's a 'baby mammoth', rather than a 'standard elephant'?
1. Re:But..... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-04-04 09:55 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  All the hair.
2. Re:But..... by chispito · 2012-04-04 10:01 · Score: 1
  
  Because it looks like a baby elephant with fur?
  
  --
  The Daddy casts sleep on the Baby. The Baby resists!
3. Re:But..... by jamesh · 2012-04-04 10:04 · Score: 2
  
  How do they know it's a 'baby mammoth', rather than a 'standard elephant'?
  An African Elephant? In Siberia? Pull the other one. It must be a Woolly Siberian Ice Elephant.
4. Re:But..... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-04-04 10:05 · Score: 1
  
  That's what she said.
5. Re:But..... by Sketchly · 2012-04-04 10:28 · Score: 1
  
  How do they know it's a 'baby mammoth', rather than a 'standard elephant'?
  An African Elephant? In Siberia? Pull the other one. It must be a Woolly Siberian Ice Elephant.
  umm...... continental drift, maybe?
6. Re:But..... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-04-04 10:44 · Score: 0
  
  In 8,000 years?
  Liquid continent...
7. Re:But..... by PCM2 · 2012-04-04 11:10 · Score: 1
  
  Other than the fact that woolly mammoths are known to have been native to Siberia, among other regions, and this carcass has every characteristic of the other mammoths that have been discovered, starting with the long fur? Nobody said they've discovered a new species. Biologists kinda know about this stuff.
  BTW, woolly mammoths are believed to have diverged from Asian elephants, not African elephants. Also, young Asian elephants are kind of fuzzy with the same orange-colored fur as found on this carcass.
  
  --
  Breakfast served all day!
8. Re:But..... by Patch86 · 2012-04-07 01:01 · Score: 1
  
  You know, Mammoths aren't actually bigger than living African Elephants. This is the size of a baby elephant, so must have been a baby mammoth.
Yuka sell by date by doston · 2012-04-04 10:09 · Score: 1

You know if Totinos packaged Yuka, they'd stuff her full of chemicals and she'd still have a sell by date that's literally only months away. How did Yuka's nubile flesh stay so deliciously pink and tender for over ten thousand years, while still being certified organic, even by Oregon Tilth standards???!!!
Mammoth burger! by Anonymous Coward · 2012-04-04 10:21 · Score: 0

Now I want a mammoth burger!
I'll take mine medium, with cheese and all the trimmings. Mustard though, none of that mayo crap!
How bad is it... by MAXOMENOS · 2012-04-04 11:12 · Score: 1

...that I actually feel horrible for the poor mammoth? :(

--
Finding God in a Dog
Tastes like chicken. by billybob_jcv · 2012-04-04 12:00 · Score: 1

Now, if the story had been about mammoths that ate humans, THAT would be news.
See!?!?! by Anonymous Coward · 2012-04-04 14:30 · Score: 0

Finally proof that humans and dinosaurs lived at the same time! I've been telling everyone this for years; but no one would believe me.
1. Re:See!?!?! by able1234au · 2012-04-04 15:18 · Score: 1
  
  Ithinkisaurit?
African? by dutchwhizzman · 2012-04-04 14:42 · Score: 2

or European?

--
I was promised a flying car. Where is my flying car?
HUH? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-04-05 02:32 · Score: 0

So people were eating mammoths 4,000 years before the earth was created? Don't tell the wingnuts.