Possible Toolmaking Site Found Near Woolly Mammoth Bones

News June 24, 2019

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YAKUTSK, RUSSIA—According to a report in The Siberian Times, paleontologist Innokenty Pavlov and his colleagues discovered a woolly mammoth skeleton in the thawing permafrost on Kotelny Island, which is now located off Russia’s northeastern coast, but during the Pleistocene era was connected to the mainland. Pavlov said the skeleton belonged to an animal that lived at least 10,000 years ago. Tool marks on one of its tusks suggest the ivory may have been collected to make sharp-edged tools and weapons. A mark on one of its lower ribs may be a hunting wound, he added. The skeleton will be taken to a laboratory for radiocarbon dating and further study. To read about another discovery in Siberia, go to “Nomadic Chic.”

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