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TOMSK, Oct 7 – RIA Tomsk. Paleontologists of Tomsk State University (TSU) found more than 600 remains of mammoths and tools of ancient people used for cutting of hulks and processing of bones during the international expedition in Novosibirsk region, the press service of the higher education institution reported on Wednesday.
It was reported earlier that paleontologists of TSU began works on the Barabinsk plain in Novosibirsk region in the summer of 2015 where "a classical mud bath" of ancient mammals was. Scientists came to a conclusion that this area became refugium (one of the last habitats) for mammoths, and planned to return there with one more expedition.
"(The scientists found) more than 600 remains of the largest mammals of a late Pleistocene of Northern Eurasia. According to the paleontologists, the age of their finds is from 17 to 11 thousand years. <…> Excavation was carried out in the village of Mamontovoye on the field Wolf mane. Scientists and students of TSU, University of Wrocław (Poland) and Institute of archeology and ethnographies (Novosibirsk) participated in the excavation", – it is told in the message.
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It is specified that in the excavation which was made on the Barabinsk plain in September, concentration of bones of ancient giants was more than two times higher, than on the field Berelekh in Yakutia which is considered the largest "cemetery" of mammoths in Asia.
"The preliminary analysis specifies that many mammoths have symptoms of diseases of skeletal system. The animals suffering from mineral starvation were attracted by an animal solonets located on the (Wolf) mane. Thousands years ago mammoths came here to eat the deposits sated with scarce macro - and microcells", – was noted in TSU.
Also 11 products made of quartzite and quartz which could be used by ancient people for cutting of carcasses of animals and for processing of bones and tusks were found there. "Artifacts and bones of animals are found in one plane. <…> (These) people witnessed natural mass death of mammoths", – the Head of Laboratory of continental ecosystems of the Mesozoic and the Cenozoic Sergey Leshchinsky was quoted in TSU.