A Gold Miner Hit Something Frozen in Canada — It Was a Baby Mammoth With Skin and Hair

Ancient Canada reveals one of the most extraordinary Ice Age discoveries ever made in North America: a baby woolly mammoth found frozen in the Yukon with its skin, hair, trunk, tail, ears and even the pads and nails on its feet still preserved. The discovery happened in June 2022 in the Klondike goldfields, when a miner using a front-end loader struck something unusual inside the frozen ground. When he stopped and climbed out, he found the nearly complete body of a baby woolly mammoth that had been preserved in permafrost for more than 30,000 years. The calf was only about a month old when she died. Her body was so well preserved that researchers could examine features that almost never survive in the fossil record, including her skin, hair, soft tissues and the flexible tip of her trunk. Even more remarkably, grass was still present inside her stomach. That means this very young mammoth had already begun feeding on the vegetation of the Ice Age mammoth steppe while still depending on its mother. Scientists believe rapid burial followed by continuous freezing protected the body from scavengers, oxygen and decay. For tens of thousands of years, the frozen Yukon ground preserved an animal that would normally have disappeared within months. The specimen is considered the most complete mummified mammoth ever found in North America. Unlike most famous mammoth mummies, which come from Siberia, this animal lived on the North American side of ancient Beringia alongside steppe bison, wild horses, caribou and other Ice Age animals. In this video, we explore how a gold miner discovered the frozen mammoth, what scientists found still preserved inside her body, how she survived beneath the ground for more than 30,000 years, and why the race to protect these Ice Age mummies is becoming increasingly urgent. #AncientCanada #CanadaHistory #IceAge #PrehistoricCanada #Yukon ⚠️ Some visuals are illustrative. Certain materials may be used under Fair Use for commentary and educational purposes.