They find in Mexico one of the largest mammoth cemeteries of all time

Almost by chance, a team of researchers has found one of the largest mammoth cemeteries known to date. It all started in October 2019, when the construction of the General Felipe Ángeles International Airport began, about 73 kilometers north of Mexico City. The workers were doing the first work to clear the ground and what was their surprise when they started digging up a series of long bones of which there was no knowledge so far.

When the experts reached the area, they started digging to find out what it was about and soon had an answer: they were mammoth bones. For this reason, they began to work in the area to unearth any type of evidence about this gigantic animal that stepped on the earth thousands of years ago, at which time they realized that they were facing something unusual: there was neither one nor two bones; not even one or two animals; but up to three different points next to the airport they were able to find 60 mammoths buried in that area.

As explained Francisco Sánchez Navarro, coordinator of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), lmammoth bones would date back 30,000 years. But what were they doing there? At that time, corresponding to the last glacial period, this area corresponded to the shore of lake Xaltocan, so these impressive animals came to this area regularly to cool off. What they did not know is that it was also a natural trap, used by human beings to hunt them, so that they could feed on their meat and use their skins and ivory.

Experts consider that it would not be a cemetery to use, but an area used by the human species to hunt mammoths. Because, being an area rich in water, it is very possible that muddy land in which these heavy animals they got caught, thus facilitating hunting tasks. For that reason, so many animals could have appeared together, found in three distinct parts next to the area where the new airport will be built.

According to the first tests, these sixty animals would be colombian mammoths, a species that lived throughout North America during the Pleistocene, that is to say, from 2.6 million years ago to about 11,700 years ago. Despite the search, in this area no remains of the famous woolly mammoth were found, although it is not ruled out that in some nearby burial they could appear in the near future, although it is true that this type of animal is more common in latitudes further north. within the continent.

But as confirmed by the National Institute of Anthropology and History of Mexico through a statement, next to this mammoth cemetery also found the burial of 15 humans from pre-Hispanic times. In this case, it is considered that they lived between 950 and 700 a. C., and the experts believe that they were Farmers by the type of utensils that appeared next to them, such as pots, bowls or clay figures. The fertility of these lands would explain the presence of farms in this precise area.

More mammoths

Interestingly, just under 10 kilometers from this point they were found in November 2019 two other large areas full of mammoth bones, which dated approximately 15,000 years ago. In this case, there was a question as to whether these animals went to these wells voluntarily to cool off or it was the human being who took them there as an ambush, where it would be easier to catch them. The evidence found in the case of the airport could indicate that both locations represented human hunting areas.

Now, a team of 30 archaeologists and three conservationists They will be in charge of studying the remains of these mammoths found, with which they can find a series of valuable clues about life in the Pleistocene. Thanks to these remains, details such as what they ate, if they had any kind of health problem or even know how long they were able to live. It will be in the coming months when the results will be available, an analysis of some of the most spectacular animals that have never set foot on Earth before.