VERTEBRATE RECORDS | Late Pleistocene Mummified Mammals

Mummified remains are the most spectacular of Ice Age mammal fossils. They give a good idea of how some of the extinct large species (megafauna) would have appeared. Further, they may yield: important DNA evidence; knowledge of soft tissue structure, paleopathology, and paleodiet; information on parasites, predators, scavengers; and paleoclimate. At least 16 species of Ice Age mammals have been mummified. Most carcasses are preserved by a type of freeze-drying in frozen ground of Russia (Siberia), United States (Alaska), and Canada (Yukon), and date between about 50–25 and 15–10 ka. However, some are mummified in dry, stable cave environments; and others have been ‘pickled’ in a saline solution associated with a petrochemical seep.