Re: Bringing Back The Mammoth (again)

[Tommy Tyrberg <tommy.tyrberg@norrkoping.mail.telia.com>]

At 17:06 2006-08-15, Richard W. Travsky wrote:

> (so, what if they find a frozen neanderthal?)


Unfortunately this is unlikely, but not quite impossible. The known 
distribution of the neanderthalers and permafrost just barely overlap. The 
most likely areas would be the Altai mountains and the Northern Urals and 
the Pechora basin.
Unfortunately it takes rather unusual taphonomic circumstances to preserve 
a carcass in permafrost (I recommend Björn Kurténs' essay "How to to 
deep-freeze a Mammoth"). The best chance would probably be to find a 
deliberately buried neanderthal corpse. Some very well preserved scythian 
graves with frozen remains have been found at Pazyryk in the Altai. Since 
it works with Homo sapiens why not with Homo neanderthalis?

Tommy Tyrberg