Nexus - 0406 - New Times Magazine-pages

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and damp than that of the average mammal. In other words, the __ that the preservation of meat by freezing requires some rather spe- mammoth's hair was very poorly adapted to cold. cial conditions. Now we know that the northern Siberian plains (today, one of Herbert Harris, in a Science Digest article on freezing tech- the coldest spots on Earth) supported millions of mammoths, niques, wrote: along with vast numbers of rhinoceros, antelopes, horses, bison, What [Clarence] Birdseye had proven was that the faster a sabre-toothed cats and other animals. food can be frozen at 'deep' temperatures of around minus 40 Perhaps it was the knowledge of these conditions that caused degrees Fahrenheit, the less chance there is of forming the large Sir Charles Lyell, the great founder of modern geology, to remark ice crystals that tear down cellular walls and tissues, leaving gaps that it would be impossible for herds of mammoth and rhinoceros through which escape the natural juices, nutriments and flavor... to subsist throughout the year even in the southern part of Siberia. ‘Take poultry giblets,' explained a Birdseye engineer. 'They can Many of the mammoths that have been found frozen have had as last eight months at 10 below zero, but "turn" in four weeks above much as 50 pounds of organic material, largely undigested and it. Or lobster. It lasts 24 months at 10 below, but less than 20 remarkably well-preserved, in their teeth and stomachs—their last days at anything above..." meals. The vegetation was found to be ripe fruits of sedges, In light of these statements, the description of the frozen mam- grasses and other plants, suggesting that the mammoths died dur- moth flesh given by F. F. Herz is very illuminating. Quoted by ing the second half of July or beginning of August. Most of the Bassett Digby in his book on the mammoth, Herz said, "...the animals were fat, which testifies to an ample flesh is fibrous and marbled with fat. [It] food supply, easily obtainable. looks as fresh as well-frozen beef." And this is meat known to have been frozen for thou- A FORMERLY LUSH ECOSYSTEM Their world changed from J sands of years! Some people have reportedly While it is clear on one hand that the been made ill by eating this preserved meat, ground in which the bodies are found has a temperate zone to a but at least occasionally it is perfectly edible. been frozen hard since the carcasses were frigid location. Millions Thus Joseph Barnes, former correspondent of entombed, the ground must have been soft . . . the New York Herald Tribune, commented and unfrozen previously. You cannot thrust of animals (including on the delicious flavour of some mammoth solid flesh into hard-frozen earth. man) were suddenly meat served to him at an Academy of And in the New Siberian Islands farther . Sciences dinner in Moscow in the 1930s. north, the Arctic explorer Baron Toll found moved from a mild Birdseye proved that to remain in edible remains of a sabre-toothed tiger and a fruit | e]jmate to one of sub-zero | condition, meat must be kept very cold—not tree that had been 90 feet tall when it was merely frozen, but at a temperature far below standing. The tree was well-preserved temperatures. freezing point. His research indicates in the permafrost, and Toll reporte that these mammoths, one minute gen- that green leaves and ripe fruit stil tly eating midsummer buttercups, were clung to its branches. Yet, at the pre- I must reiterate that the suddenly frozen and maintained at tem- sent time, the only tree vegetation in shift was apparently a peratures far below freezing point for this area is a willow that grows one thousands of years. inch high. It is obvious that aroun sudden and fast crow on these now inhospitable fag movement of the Earth's PM esr ror. Gr aduional animals lik islands. crust. those on the other side of the globe, The picture we have, then, is of an were subjected to the turbulence of area on the Earth's surface covere! crustal shifting. This disturbance of cli- with green vegetation with a multitude matic conditions accounts for the fact of animals feeding on ripe seeds, but- that few articulated bodies have been tercups and ripe fruit of sedges, grasses found. The remains of countless car- and other plants, right in the middle of summer—a beautiful pas- casses are, for the most part, just bones scattered about and piled toral scene. in great heaps, along with masses of frozen trees. These, like The land on which this bucolic picture presented itself could their American counterparts, also contribute an air of violence and not have been where it is today, however. It must have been fur- tragedy to the endless reaches of desolate tundra. ther south, in the Earth's temperate zone. During the last pole Hapgood commented: shift, as North, Central and South America on one side of the It appears to me that the whole mass of evidence relative to the globe would have begun moving south, the land that is today animal and plant remains in the Siberian tundra, interpreted in Siberia would have begun moving north. And it apparently the light of the evidence from North America, sufficiently confirms moved so abruptly that it interrupted animals peacefully grazing. the conclusion that there was a northward displacement of Their world changed from a temperate zone to a frigid location. Siberia coincident with the southward displacement of North Millions of animals (including man) were suddenly moved froma = America at the end of the last North American ice age. mild climate to one of sub-zero temperatures. Any who were not torn completely apart seem to have been slammed to the ground and quick-frozen, to await discovery thousands of years later, like | About the Author: icy sentinels bearing mute testimony of ultimate disaster. Richard W. Noone is the author of 5/5/2000: Ice, The I must reiterate that the shift was apparently a sudden and fast Ultimate Disaster, published in 1986 by Harmony Books, a movement of the Earth's crust. Part of the evidence for this _ division of Crown Publishers, New York (revised Three Rivers revolves around the condition of frozen animal remains. It seems Press/Crown edition, 1997). To be continued in the next issue of NEXUS... temperatures. shift was apparently a sudden and fast _ crust. About the Author: Richard W. Noone is the author of 5/5/2000: Ice, The Ultimate Disaster, published in 1986 by Harmony Books, a division of Crown Publishers, New York (revised Three Rivers Press/Crown edition, 1997). NEXUS - 49 | must reiterate that the To be continued in the next issue of NEXUS... OCTOBER - NOVEMBER 1997