Acta Zoologica Cracoviensia, 53A(1-2) 2010

Issue:

VOL 53A(1-2) 2010

DOI:

10.3409/azc.53a_1-2.51-64

Keywords:

Vistulian, woolly mammoth, radiocarbon dating, stable oxygen isotope composition, Lower Silesia

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A Late Pleistocene woolly mammoth from Lower Silesia, SW Poland

• A. KRZEMIŃSKA
• K. STEFANIAK
• J. ZYCH
• P. WOJTAL
• G. SKRZYPEK
• A. MIKOŁAJCZYK
• A. WIŚNIEWSKI

Abstract:

The well-preserved remains (74 bones) of a woolly mammoth Mammuthus primigenius were discovered in Vistulian (Weichselian) sediments in the vicinity of Zastruże near Żarów, Lower Silesia, Poland. The mammoth female, ~18-50 years old, died from unknown reason on a muddy slope of a periglacial valley and was quickly buried in sediments of ~24 ka age. The results of the stable oxygen isotope analyses of bone phosphates indicate that more than one individual might have been buried at this site. The calculated stable oxygen isotope composition of water drunk by the Zastruże mammoth/s during its/their lifetime was -10.8±0.4‰, reflecting an approximate annual mean air temperature around 6.6±0.8°C.