TOMSK, Jul 19– RIA Tomsk. Paleontologists of Tomsk State University (TSU) organized online platform for fund raising for expedition to one of the largest locations of mammoths in Eurasia which helps to learn more about the reasons of extinction of these animals, and also for creation of movie about paleontologists work, developer of the platform Ilya Myasnikov reported.
Earlier it was reported that in the summer of 2015 TSU paleontologists worked in the natural boundary the Wolf Mane in the Novosibirsk region where mammoths refugium was found (one of the last habitats). Here animals had "mud bath" and vitamin "sanatorium" where they could find food with the necessary minerals. Besides, it was succeeded to prove that mammoths lived in the refugium along with people.
"Funds are raised for expedition and for the movie about work of paleontologists – for all cycle of works, beginning from payment of fuels and lubricants and finishing with payment for work for the movie. <…> The full sum on expedition is 420 thousand rubles, 62 thousand are already collected – all this from private donations", – the interlocutor of the agency told.
According to the press service of TSU, only during excavation of 2015 in the Wolf Mane more than 600 fragments and the whole bones ̆ and teeth of a woolly mammoth were revealed, and from the middle of the 20th century the remains of not less than 55 mammoths were found. Today less than 3% of the cemetery are opened.
"For half a century several scientific hypotheses were made. (Scientists) tried to explain how this cemetery of mammoths appeared. One considered that animals drowned during floods, others – that they were exterminated by people. <…> Also there was now a hope that the riddle will manage to be solved", – the press service quotes the head of the expedition Sergey Leshchinsky.