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Young Butchered Mammoth Discovered In Siberia

Posted by samzenpus on 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."

26 of 72 comments (clear)

  1. Buffet? by p0p0 · · Score: 5, Funny

    So which researcher gets the first taste?

    1. Re:Buffet? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      There were companies in the US that could turn this into finely textured mammoth meat

    2. Re:Buffet? by Ihmhi · · 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.

      --
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    3. Re:Buffet? by Em+Adespoton · · Score: 2

      Where does that author think that zoologists keep their specimens after retrieving them? Do they really need to take the extra steppe?

    4. Re:Buffet? by buchner.johannes · · 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.
    5. Re:Buffet? by Sussurros · · 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.
    6. Re:Buffet? by Xest · · 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?

  2. Darn Poachers by Normal+Dan · · Score: 3, Funny

    We need to find who's responsible for this.

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    1. Re:Darn Poachers by tomhath · · Score: 2

      Sounds like they did think of them, as a main course.

  3. Oh the humanity! by cvtan · · 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.
  4. what a waste by ozduo · · 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.
  5. This story gets better with retelling by IntentionalStance · · 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 Deadstick · · Score: 2

      We aren't the only critters who eat critters.

    2. Re:This story gets better with retelling by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      Not true. Read about grizzly bears and salmon.

    3. Re:This story gets better with retelling by avonhungen · · 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)

    4. Re:This story gets better with retelling by dylan_- · · 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
  6. Re:Taste? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Did they taste it? Does it taste like chicke?

    Nope - elephant

  7. Re:Taste? by GoodNewsJimDotCom · · Score: 2

    Can't be much older than what I have in my freezer.

    --
    God spoke to me
  8. Re:Taste? by Kjella · · 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
  9. Re:gamy by Anonymous Coward · · 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!

  10. Re:But... by CanHasDIY · · 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
  11. Re:But..... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    All the hair.

  12. Re:But..... by jamesh · · 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.

  13. Re:But... by ColdWetDog · · 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!
  14. Re:Taste? by mcneely.mike · · Score: 5, Funny

    Did they taste it? Does it taste like chicke?

    Nope - elephant

    Nope - elephan

    FTFY

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  15. African? by dutchwhizzman · · Score: 2

    or European?

    --
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