Baby mammoths died traumatic deaths

CT scans reveal mud in windpipe and lungs

UNTIMELY DEMISE  This well-preserved woolly mammoth baby, nicknamed Lyuba, probably suffocated after sucking mud into her lungs, CT scans suggest.

Francis Latreille

More than 45,000 years ago in the Siberian Arctic, a baby woolly mammoth, now known as Khroma, may have plunged to her death from a riverbank into a pit of quicksand. New CT scans of her mummified body reveal a broken back and globs of mud in her windpipe, giving researchers new clues about her demise.

Paleobiologist Daniel Fisher of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and colleagues also devised a way to fully scan Lyuba, a newborn mammoth about the size of a Great Dane. The researchers used a Ford Motor Company scanner — designed for checking car parts — to image Lyuba, who probably also died by suffocation.

Microscans of Lyuba and Khroma’s teeth let researchers pinpoint the animals’ ages at death. The infants were around one and two months old, respectively, the team reports July 8 in the Journal of Paleontology, and still held milk in their bellies.

An animation shows a rotating view of Lyuba’s outer surface. Credit: University of Michigan Museum of Paleontology

An animation of CT images shows a rotating view of Lyuba’s skeleton. Credit: University of Michigan Museum of Paleontology

Meghan Rosen is a senior writer who reports on the life sciences for Science News. She earned a Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular biology with an emphasis in biotechnology from the University of California, Davis, and later graduated from the science communication program at UC Santa Cruz.

Use up and down arrow keys to explore.Use right arrow key to move into the list.Use left arrow key to move back to the parent list.Use tab key to enter the current list item.Use escape to exit the menu.Use the Shift key with the Tab key to tab back to the search input.
Logo

Looks like your ad blocker is on.

×

We rely on ads to keep creating quality content for you to enjoy for free.

Please support our site by disabling your ad blocker.

Continue without supporting us

Choose your Ad Blocker

  • Adblock Plus
  • Adblock
  • Adguard
  • Ad Remover
  • Brave
  • Ghostery
  • uBlock Origin
  • uBlock
  • UltraBlock
  • Other
  1. In the extension bar, click the AdBlock Plus icon
  2. Click the large blue toggle for this website
  3. Click refresh
  1. In the extension bar, click the AdBlock icon
  2. Under "Pause on this site" click "Always"
  1. In the extension bar, click on the Adguard icon
  2. Click on the large green toggle for this website
  1. In the extension bar, click on the Ad Remover icon
  2. Click "Disable on This Website"
  1. In the extension bar, click on the orange lion icon
  2. Click the toggle on the top right, shifting from "Up" to "Down"
  1. In the extension bar, click on the Ghostery icon
  2. Click the "Anti-Tracking" shield so it says "Off"
  3. Click the "Ad-Blocking" stop sign so it says "Off"
  4. Refresh the page
  1. In the extension bar, click on the uBlock Origin icon
  2. Click on the big, blue power button
  3. Refresh the page
  1. In the extension bar, click on the uBlock icon
  2. Click on the big, blue power button
  3. Refresh the page
  1. In the extension bar, click on the UltraBlock icon
  2. Check the "Disable UltraBlock" checkbox
  1. Please disable your Ad Blocker
  2. Disable any DNS blocking tools such as AdGuardDNS or NextDNS
  3. Disable any privacy or tracking protection extensions such as Firefox Enhanced Tracking Protection or DuckDuckGo Privacy.

If the prompt is still appearing, please disable any tools or services you are using that block internet ads (e.g. DNS Servers, tracking protection or privacy extensions).