Frozen Earth

Can this be real? 

Grant Zazula stared at the creature in the photo, his heart racing.

It was June 2022 in the Yukon, an area in northern Canada. Zazula is a paleontologist, a scientist who studies ancient animals and plants. He had been relaxing at home when a photo arrived on his phone.

The message was from workers in the Yukon gold fields. That morning, one of the workers had been digging for gold in frozen dirt. Suddenly, the body of an animal tumbled out of the muck.

Was it a bison? No. This animal  had a trunk. Was it an elephant?  No. Elephants don’t live in the Yukon.  The worker showed it to his boss.  They realized this was an animal they had never seen before. They took a picture and sent it to Zazula.

As soon as he opened the picture, Zazula knew what he was seeing. But he couldn’t believe his eyes.

In the photo, lying in the mud, was a baby woolly mammoth. The elephant-like animal looked like it had died yesterday . . . except woolly mammoths died out in North America more than 10,000 years ago.

Zazula knew that the icy dirt must have preserved the mammoth’s body, freezing it in time. Now, by studying it, he and other scientists could learn amazing things about this long-lost animal. 

But first, the mammoth had to be put in a giant freezer. Quickly! If not, the body would start to rot in the warm air. Zazula’s chance to study it would be gone. 

Zazula began frantically emailing everyone he knew for help.

Could the baby mammoth be saved before her secrets were lost forever?

Let’s take a trip back in time to around 35,000 years ago, when this baby mammoth walked the earth. Her world is very different from ours. Countries, cities, and towns do not exist yet. There are no buildings, no schools, no streets, no cars. And it is cold. Very, very cold.

This is a time known as the Ice Age.  It started about 125,000 years ago and ended about 12,000 years ago.

During this frozen period, temperatures drop far below freezing. Winters can last for nine months. Large sheets of ice cover North America, Europe, and Asia, like white blankets. In some places, the ice is more than 2 miles thick. All around these glaciers is a dusty land without trees. It is called the tundra. 

The tundra is where you spot our baby mammoth. She is walking through the snow with a herd of other mammoths. Their long tusks curve up toward the sky. Icy winds whip across the land, but the mammoths don’t care. Their thick fur protects them from the bitter cold.

Suddenly, one of the mammoths makes a loud sound, like a horn blowing. Danger. Our baby mammoth hides behind her mom. 

She sees sharp claws and big fangs. It is a saber-toothed cat! The tigerlike creature runs toward the herd. The baby mammoth can almost feel its hot breath.

But the adult mammoths know what to do. They wave their tusks. They stomp their giant feet. The saber-toothed cat is afraid. It slinks away. Phew!

The mammoths are used to sharing this land with other big animals. There are giant sloths that are the size of hippos. They can weigh 2,400 pounds. There are beavers the size of today’s bears. There are herds of bison with huge, pointed horns. Giant predators that could eat the mammoths wait around every corner: bears, lions, wolves. 

Yet there is one Ice Age creature the baby mammoth hasn’t come across yet: humans. Thirty-five thousand years ago, humans have not yet made their way to the Americas, where our mammoth lives. But small groups of people are scattered around much of the rest of the globe—including the frosty tundra areas of Europe and Asia.

If our baby mammoth could meet these humans, she might be a little confused. No fur to keep them warm? No sharp teeth or claws to protect them? And so tiny! How do these helpless-looking creatures manage to survive in such a harsh, frozen land?

It’s not easy. For Ice Age people, life is a daily battle against bitter cold, extreme hunger, and fierce predators.  

During the long winter, the humans take shelter in round huts made of animal skins and giant bones. They pile on layers of heavy animal fur clothes to protect their skin from frostbite. Roaring fires warm their campsites and scare hungry beasts back into the shadows.

People must watch out for these beasts every second. Otherwise—gulp—they could become a snack for a saber-toothed cat. 

There is one Ice Age creature the baby mammoth hasn’t met: humans. Thirty-five thousand years ago, humans have not made their way to the Americas yet. But small groups of people are living in other places around the world, including on the tundra of Europe and Asia.

If our baby mammoth could meet these humans, she might be confused. No fur to keep them warm? No sharp teeth or claws to keep them safe? And so tiny!  Humans look too helpless to live in such a dangerous, frozen place.

The Ice Age is not an easy time for humans. Life is a daily battle against freezing cold, terrible hunger, and animals that could hurt people.

During the long winter, the humans live in round huts made of animal skins and giant bones. They wear fur clothes to protect their skin from the cold. Roaring fires warm their camps and scare away hungry creatures.

People must watch out for these animals every second. Otherwise— gulp—they could become a snack for a wolf or bear. 

But humans are not just hunted by other creatures—they are also the hunters. 

For Ice Age people, hunting animals like reindeer is key to survival. The hunters track animals for days through the icy wilderness, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. Then . . . whoosh. They hurl pointy stone-tipped spears through the air toward their prey.

Later, back at the campsite, almost all parts of the animals are used. The meat is roasted for food. The skin is sewn into clothing. The bones and antlers are carved into weapons and tools. The fat is burned in lamps.

People tell stories and sing songs about the animals that give them all these amazing gifts. They paint action-packed pictures of them on cave walls and carve detailed animal figurines out of bone. The stories, songs, and art are a way of honoring the animals—but also of sharing knowledge about them. 

Art and storytelling help humans survive in their icy world, just as shelter, warm clothing, and weapons do.

But humans are not just hunted by animals— they are also the hunters.

For Ice Age people, hunting animals like reindeer is key to staying alive. The hunters follow animals through the snow for days. Then, when the moment is right . . . whoosh. They throw spears through the air toward their prey.

Later, back at the camp, almost all parts of the animals are used. The meat is roasted for food. The skin is made into clothes. The bones and antlers are turned into weapons and tools. The fat is burned in lamps.

People tell stories and sing songs about the animals that give them all these gifts. They paint pictures of the hunt on cave walls. They carve animal statues out of bone. With these stories, songs, and art, people show their respect for the animals. They also share what they know with other humans.

Art and stories help people live in their icy world, as much as warm clothes, huts, and weapons do.

Humans do not come to North America, where our baby mammoth lives, for 15,000 more years.

People make their way from Russia into Alaska. In warmer times, these two places are separated by a thin strip of water called the Bering Strait. But during the Ice Age, a land bridge connects Asia with North America because this water is frozen into a glacier. By about 15,000 years ago, humans have crossed this bridge.

Not long after they arrive, the Ice Age finally ends. Temperatures begin to rise. Earth shakes off its icy blankets. Trees and grass and flowers creep over the land.

In North America and around the world, humans find new ways to live. But many of the great Ice Age animals cannot adapt so quickly. With their icy homes and food disappearing, these creatures cannot survive.

Saber-toothed cats, giant sloths, and finally, woolly mammoths . . . all vanish, becoming extinct. 

Today all we have left of the Ice Age are clues: animal and plant fossils, stone tools and weapons, cave paintings. Scientists like Zazula use these clues to make a picture of the long-ago past. That’s why, on the June day in 2022 that the baby mammoth was found, Zazula wanted so badly to study her. 

It was lucky for him that a group of geologists—scientists who study Earth— were working nearby in the Yukon that day. When they saw Zazula’s email asking for help, they raced to the spot where the baby mammoth was found.

The mammoth had been stuck in a frozen layer of soil beneath the ground’s surface. That’s why her body had not rotted. The geologists combed through this icy soil for anything else they could find. They collected bison bones, bits of plants, and mammoth fur. These would help Zazula learn more about the mammoth’s life and home.

Finally, the team carried the baby mammoth to their truck. Zazula had found a large freezer in a nearby town that could hold the mammoth. Now they just had to get her there.

Most of the time, scientists are lucky to find just the bones of Ice Age animals. Finding an entire frozen animal, like our baby mammoth, is rare—and exciting.  This was the first complete baby mammoth ever discovered in North America.

Luckily, the geologists were able to rush her to the freezer just in time. The baby mammoth stayed frozen. The next day, Zazula could not wait to see her in person. Leaders of a Native nation came too, because the baby mammoth was found on their land.

For the Native leaders, meeting an animal that had lived on their land during the Ice Age was an emotional moment. The scientists had strong feelings too.  When the mammoth was brought out of the freezer, many gasped.

The Native leaders blessed the baby mammoth and gave her a name. They called her Nun cho ga, which means “big baby animal” in their language.  Like the scientists, they were excited that Nun cho ga would teach them about the distant past. The Native leaders and the scientists were all full of wonder, gazing at this time traveler from the Ice Age.

“It’s been one of my lifelong dreams to come face-to-face with a real woolly mammoth,” Zazula said. “That dream came true today.”