Mammoth expert shares experience with CSC audience

Dick Mol, a native of the Netherlands, showed dozens of slides and discussed the excavation and ensuing research on the Jarkov mammoth found in Siberia in 1999 and the Yukagir mammoth that was discovered about 500 miles to the east in 2003. Both finds uncovered woolly mammoths, sometimes referred to as “mammoths from the north.”

Mol said woolly mammoths were about two meters, or 6 ½ feet, tall at the shoulder, with large spiraling, twisting tusks. The prehistoric elephants also had very small ears and practically no tail, but an abundance of coarse hair that helped them survive in their cold, brutal environments.

He said they lived from 300,000 to 10,000 years ago, and became extinct after the last Ice Age ended. They lived in the tundra regions now known as Siberia and Alaska.

The speaker noted that Jarkov and Yukagir expeditions were important for mammoth research because both mammoths were so well preserved in the tundra permafrost that the carcasses gave the scientific world much more to study than just the skeletons previously found.

During the recent excavations, the scientists were able to extract skin, hair and the stomach contents along with the usual tusks and skeletal remains. Mol said they worked in great detail and even went as far as counting every eyelash on the mammoths.

He added that nearly every part of the mammoths contains a plethora of information. This includes how harsh the environment had been by studying the tusks, the age of the mammoth from the molars and if the animal had died of an infection of the joints.

“Every bone has its own story,” said Mol, who is president of Mammuthus Club International. He added that each mammoth had 342 bones.

He came to Chadron State just prior to being on the program at the Second International Congress on “The World of Elephants” in Hot Springs later in the week.

The approximately 100 Columbian Mammoths found at the Hot Springs Mammoth Site some 25 years ago were much larger than the woolly mammoths and became extinct about 26,000 years ago, scientists believe.

Mol told the audience he became interested in mammoths at the age of 12, but he said he is not supportive of attempts to use DNA recovered from the Jarkov or Yakagir mammoths to clone them because he believes they became extinct for a reason.

He added that he is still seeking answers to why they perished, and that he enjoys searching for more mammoths and sharing his findings with audiences such as the one he spoke to at Chadron State.

Mol told a reporter prior to his talk at CSC that his next project is recovering mammoth remains from the English Channel. He already had done vast research on mammoth bones found in the North Sea, which is connected to the English Channel.

When asked if there were many bones at those locations, he replied, “Millions.”