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MONUMENT OF NATURE THE BERELEKH MAMMOTHS -CEMETERY- (YAKUTIA, EASTERN SIBERIA, RUSSIA)

Г. Г. Боескоров

Abstract

North of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) is one of the "rich" regions of the world in the number of finds of a woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) remains. Bones, and sometimes even frozen corpses of these fossil elephants are found here along the coasts, and on the banks of rivers and lakes where they thaw out from permafrost. The mammoths and other mammals of the Mammoth fauna remains are preserved up to present time due to cold climate and permafrost. And in some districts of Yakutia frozen Quaternary sediments contain huge deposits of this material. In this regard, Yakutia is the only region in the world where mammoth tusks are collected till now in large quantities, up to 20-30 tons per year. One of the most interesting places in this respect is the Berelekh "cemetery" of mammoths - the location of the mass burial of the mammoths remains from the final of Late Pleistocene, which is located in the upper reaches of the river Berelekh (left tributary of the Indigirka River, Northeast Yakutia). Number of mammoth bones, recorded directly on location in the course of its long-term study, is more than 10,000 ones. Here, at the present time, the remains of at least 200 Mammuthus primigenius individuals of different sex and age have been found. In 2007, the Berelekh locality received the status of a specially protected geological and paleontological site (a natural monument) due to the fact that it is one of the largest "cemeteries" of mammoths remains in Eurasia. The article discusses the problems of studying and protecting this remarkable natural monument.

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DOI resolver: doi.org/10.5593/sgem2018/1.1/s01.039

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