Mammuthus primigenius

This skeleton is that of a young adult woolly mammoth or Mammuthus primigenius. This group of mammoths appeared in Siberia 600,000 years ago, and spread into Western Europe between 190,000 and 150,000 years ago. It died out on the continent around 10,000 years ago; the last individuals went extinct about 4,000 years ago on the island of Wrangel, in the Arctic Ocean, to the north-east of Siberia. The mammoths of Siberia or woolly mammoths are more recent than their southern cousins (Mammuthus meridionalis). They are also smaller in size. The Dufort mammoth on display next to it clearly illustrates this difference. 

This skeleton was given to the Muséum in 1912 by the Russian Count Stenbock-Fermor. It was discovered in 1907 and 1908 in an archipelago of the Arctic Ocean to the North of Russia during an expedition organized by the naturalist Konstantin Vollosovitch. It comes from one of the two Lyakhovsky islands from which it takes its name. 

This specimen was frozen when found and was delivered complete, though in pieces, to the Jardin des Plantes. The head and one of the feet are visible close by in display case 86. The 3 other feet, the skin of the back and internal organs are kept in the Museum’s reserves.

Vollosovitch Collection