That animal you thought was dead? It may not be.
February 8, 2012 10:26 AM   Subscribe

A video has surfaced, allegedly showing a woolly mammoth crossing a stream in Siberia. It's unclear if the video is a hoax, but if not it means that an animal once thought to have gone extinct 12,000 years ago still exists today.

Recently there was some further evidence that mammoths didn't go extinct 12,000 years ago as previously thought, but may have been around up to 8,000 years ago.

If this is the case, be prepared to add a 15th animal to the Lazarus list, animals previously thought to be extinct but rediscovered.
posted by Carillon (85 comments total)

This post was deleted for the following reason: I feel like when we're dealing with evidence on par with finding Jesus' face on toast it might not really be time for a post about something yet. -- cortex



 
Great backyard woolly mammoth count currently at 1.
posted by parki at 10:29 AM on February 8, 2012 [6 favorites]


It looks more like a dog carrying a fish. Blurrycams are a hoaxer's best friend!
posted by the dief at 10:29 AM on February 8, 2012 [2 favorites]


Count me, reluctantly, in the "bear with a fish in his mouth" camp.
posted by dirtdirt at 10:30 AM on February 8, 2012 [5 favorites]


A google news search for woolly mammoth brings up three articles, two of which are in this post, and the most prominent of which is a story in the Sun. My vote is for hoax.
posted by reformedjerk at 10:30 AM on February 8, 2012


It's unclear if the video is a hoax

Is Siberia in Russia?
posted by Artw at 10:30 AM on February 8, 2012 [12 favorites]


As the paleontologists on last week's NOVA were saying, I hope there's a short-faced bear too.
posted by feloniousmonk at 10:30 AM on February 8, 2012


I note that the main link with the video is from the web site for The Sun.

I confess that point has served to increase my skepticism.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:30 AM on February 8, 2012 [5 favorites]


I'm calling woowoo on this one. The water wouldn't be that flat next to the body of a massive animal crossing a strongly flowing river. There should be more interference patterns.
posted by daq at 10:31 AM on February 8, 2012 [2 favorites]


"'If surviving woolly mammoths were found in Siberia, it could run against Russia's plans to further develop and exploit the area's considerable resources.'"

Well, develop them differently. I.e., not timber and minerals, but PLEISTOCENE MEGA-FUNNA TOURS.
posted by resurrexit at 10:32 AM on February 8, 2012 [1 favorite]


Super duper hoax. Happens to the best of us.
posted by cashman at 10:32 AM on February 8, 2012


Umm, this comes from The Sun. We are taking this seriously?
posted by elendil71 at 10:32 AM on February 8, 2012 [1 favorite]


There should be more interference patterns.

Dang, he knew he forgot to click a box on the video program.
posted by resurrexit at 10:32 AM on February 8, 2012


It's unclear if the video is a hoax

The unclear video is a hoax.
posted by chavenet at 10:33 AM on February 8, 2012 [7 favorites]


I dub this mammoth "Caylee".
posted by Justinian at 10:33 AM on February 8, 2012


Well, develop them differently. I.e., not timber and minerals, but PLEISTOCENE MEGA-FUNNA TOURS.

No I'm pretty sure that figuring out how to weaponize and sell them would be the first priority.
posted by griphus at 10:34 AM on February 8, 2012 [1 favorite]


I WANT TO BELIEVE.
posted by saul wright at 10:34 AM on February 8, 2012 [4 favorites]


Lazarus taxon on Wikipedia, for a more complete and informative list than Buzzfeed's linkbait.
posted by filthy light thief at 10:34 AM on February 8, 2012 [1 favorite]


I'm calling woowoo on this one.

I am so using this.
posted by cashman at 10:35 AM on February 8, 2012


Bear. I can tell from the pixels and from having seen a few mommoths in my time.
posted by Ad hominem at 10:35 AM on February 8, 2012 [9 favorites]


Let me tell you about Chaos theory....
posted by Fizz at 10:35 AM on February 8, 2012 [1 favorite]


It's just two dudes in a mammoth costume. Next.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 10:35 AM on February 8, 2012


The video was taken last summer but is only surfacing now? Why? I'd put that shit on YouTube the same day.
posted by desjardins at 10:36 AM on February 8, 2012 [1 favorite]


How weird would that be, eh? Walking through the woods and then - HOLY CRAP!!! A WOOLLY MAMMOTH!!!
posted by stinkycheese at 10:36 AM on February 8, 2012


Haters gonna hate.
posted by mosk at 10:36 AM on February 8, 2012


The most remarkable thing is that mammoths have shrunk to the size of bears.

Evolution, you crazy motherfucker.
posted by pokermonk at 10:36 AM on February 8, 2012 [3 favorites]




It's obviously a triceratops carrying a dimetrodon, while wearing a great sloth fur.
posted by Sticherbeast at 10:36 AM on February 8, 2012 [10 favorites]


I can't see the video, but I can read the article. The only expert quoted is a "paranormal writer" (I assume he rights about the paranormal, not that he writes paranormally). That says to me that all the biologists they showed this to just laughed.
posted by DU at 10:37 AM on February 8, 2012


Its hair matches samples recovered from mammoth remains regularly dug up from the permafrost in frozen Russia

I'm amazed that we can get hair samples directly from blurry videos now.
posted by shakespeherian at 10:37 AM on February 8, 2012 [1 favorite]


Fake, of course, but I like it anyway. Reminds me of old Bigfoot film clips.
posted by KHAAAN! at 10:38 AM on February 8, 2012


As a visual effects artist, I'm 100% certain the video is fake. The camera shake was added in post, and the compositor made the mistake of softening the interface of the mammoth and the water. Objects placed in water and viewed at a shallow angle don't softly fade out below the waterline, they are completely occluded. Water just isn't transparent at that angle.
posted by balistic at 10:38 AM on February 8, 2012 [13 favorites]


Where are the giant herders?
posted by pyrex at 10:38 AM on February 8, 2012


Count me, reluctantly, in the "bear with a fish in his mouth" camp.

Yeah, what's with the shift in color from brown to green on the trunk? The head seems a weird shape, as does the slope of the back and didn't the wooly mammoth have a fairly pronounced back of the skull that rose sharply above the shoulders?
posted by CBrachyrhynchos at 10:39 AM on February 8, 2012


*fires up barbeque*
posted by Capt. Renault at 10:39 AM on February 8, 2012 [2 favorites]


I shared this video with my brother-in-law who confirmed that it is real based on his expertise as a former passenger of the S.S. Nessie Hunter.

Take that, "biologists" and "video effects artists."
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 10:39 AM on February 8, 2012 [2 favorites]


It's just a sasquatch walking on all fours. With a fish in its mouth. They do this sometimes.
posted by Nomyte at 10:39 AM on February 8, 2012 [2 favorites]


Related, on YouTube: How to Fake UFO Photographs
posted by filthy light thief at 10:40 AM on February 8, 2012


If you breath through your trunk, why not hold your trunk above water?
posted by peeedro at 10:40 AM on February 8, 2012 [3 favorites]


But what if it were a manmoth, you know, half man, half moth
posted by angrycat at 10:40 AM on February 8, 2012 [2 favorites]


Objects placed in water and viewed at a shallow angle don't softly fade out below the waterline, they are completely occluded.

I think that "fade out below the waterline" is supposed to be a shadow of the mammoth cast on top of the water.
posted by DU at 10:40 AM on February 8, 2012


No, that's a My Huge Feral Pony.
posted by jonmc at 10:41 AM on February 8, 2012 [1 favorite]


Capt. Renault: *fires up barbeque*

Oh man, this is going to be like that time a Worcester's buttonquail was found, photographed, and sold for food.
posted by filthy light thief at 10:42 AM on February 8, 2012


> The water wouldn't be that flat next to the body of a massive animal crossing a strongly flowing river.

On stilts. It's deeper than it looks.
posted by jfuller at 10:42 AM on February 8, 2012 [1 favorite]


Hey seriously, a paranormal writer has giving us compelling expert testimony.
"Paranormal writer Michael Cohen said: "Rumours of a handful of mammoths still kicking around in the vast wilderness of Siberia have been circulating for decades and occasionally sightings by locals have occurred.
Mr Cohen, 41, added: "It is highly possible that a number of species, extinct elsewhere, survive in the area. "

Also, he's 41.

DUH expert age.
posted by xarnop at 10:42 AM on February 8, 2012 [4 favorites]


The most amazing thing about this video is that it proves that over the past 12,000 some years, wooly mammoths have learned how to hide and bury their dead so well that no one will ever stumble upon a carcass.
posted by mudpuppie at 10:43 AM on February 8, 2012 [1 favorite]


I can't tell from the video if the "mammoth" sounds like Ray Romano. I'm unconvinced.
posted by xedrik at 10:43 AM on February 8, 2012 [1 favorite]


I really hate stuff like this because I really want them to be true and they never are. Damn it, hoaxers! Stop breaking my heart!
posted by brundlefly at 10:45 AM on February 8, 2012


I've been playing "follow-the-link" in Wikipedia after reading Filthy Light Thief's link to the "Lazarus list" above, and am delighted to discover that actual, real palentologists have a term called the "Elvis Taxon" (for when you THINK it's a revived species, but it's actually a different species that just LOOKS like an extinct one), and the "zombie taxon" (for when you're dating a fossil to one era based on where you found it in the geological strata, but then you find out that no, there'd been a flood or something that washed it into that place you found it and it was really from a much earlier geological strata somewhere else).

Science is awesome.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:46 AM on February 8, 2012 [7 favorites]


eh, I've seen woolier
posted by Legomancer at 10:46 AM on February 8, 2012 [3 favorites]


BRB gonna take some blurry video of my french bulldog carrying a sock around in his mouth.
posted by 2bucksplus at 10:46 AM on February 8, 2012 [5 favorites]


It's unclear if the video is a hoax, but if not it means that an animal once thought to have gone extinct 12,000 years ago still exists today.

It's unclear if "kmz is the Everlasting Glorious Emperor of the Galaxy" is a lie, but if not it means that I'm the motherfucking Galactic Emperor.
posted by kmz at 10:49 AM on February 8, 2012 [2 favorites]


Definitely a fake.

Obligatory Mitch Hedberg quote:

"I think Bigfoot is blurry, that's the problem. It's not the photographer's fault. Bigfoot is blurry, and that's extra scary to me. There's a large, out-of-focus monster roaming the countryside. Run, he's fuzzy, get out of here."
posted by Benny Andajetz at 10:50 AM on February 8, 2012 [8 favorites]


BRB gonna take some blurry video of my french bulldog carrying a sock around in his mouth.

Is that a euphemism? That better not be a euphemism.
posted by shakespeherian at 10:50 AM on February 8, 2012 [2 favorites]


The most amazing thing about this video is that it proves that over the past 12,000 some years, wooly mammoths have learned how to hide and bury their dead so well that no one will ever stumble upon a carcass.

They're just resting, in those instances.
posted by Danf at 10:50 AM on February 8, 2012


Guys, some Russian hacker just leaked extended footage from that tape!
posted by Apocryphon at 10:53 AM on February 8, 2012


I'm interested to know if the poster considered this a joke or were they serious that "It's unclear if the video is a hoax..."

I'm pretty, pretty, pretty sure it's a hoax.
posted by PJLandis at 10:55 AM on February 8, 2012




The most amazing thing about this video is that it proves that over the past 12,000 some years, wooly mammoths have learned how to hide and bury their dead so well that no one will ever stumble upon a carcass.


I don't think that's a valid argument. How well explored is remote Siberia?

But more importantly, where's the rest of video. If someone's claiming it to be real then why do they only have a few second of it in the middle of the river. Let's see it it LEAVING the water. That says more that it's fake than anything else.
posted by Liquidwolf at 10:55 AM on February 8, 2012 [1 favorite]


Is is a wooly mammoth?
Nope. Chuck Testa.
posted by charred husk at 10:55 AM on February 8, 2012 [2 favorites]


There is no way that The Sun would post a hoax, I don't think, so I believe this is real.
posted by empath at 10:56 AM on February 8, 2012 [1 favorite]


Why "wooly" mammoth? Were there any other kind?
posted by mr.marx at 10:56 AM on February 8, 2012


No I'm pretty sure that figuring out how to weaponize and sell them would be the first priority.

Oliphaunts, Mr. Frodo!
posted by Celsius1414 at 10:56 AM on February 8, 2012 [1 favorite]


YouTube version (I'm probably not the only one for whom the Sun version wouldn't play)
posted by DU at 10:56 AM on February 8, 2012


It's Bugs Meany.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 10:56 AM on February 8, 2012 [1 favorite]


Whooly Mammoth, Yeti, Wolfman, crab. Something is not like the others.
posted by PJLandis at 10:57 AM on February 8, 2012


Even if it was just a bear with a fish in its mouth, I would still be pretty impressed. Maybe I need to go to more national parks.
posted by Apocryphon at 10:59 AM on February 8, 2012


Damn! It does look like a bear with a fish. Boo!!! I want a mammoth, and I want it now.
posted by Lesser Shrew at 11:00 AM on February 8, 2012


the agency who owns the copyright also just found Tarzan
posted by mr.marx at 11:00 AM on February 8, 2012


Is Siberia in Russia?

Does a bear pretend to look like a mammoth while it shits in the woods?
posted by yoink at 11:01 AM on February 8, 2012


Blimey the Current Bun's going downhill... expect that sort of thing in The Sport
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 11:01 AM on February 8, 2012


I want a feast. I want a bean feast.
posted by shakespeherian at 11:02 AM on February 8, 2012


I love cryptids(which is where I'm classifying this) because they scratch that same itch that ghost stories do, while being removed enough from my city life that I know they're not going to descend on my in the night.

This also makes me want to fake up some Bigfoot ripoff that lives in Rock Creek Park and terrorizes defenseless row house residents.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 11:03 AM on February 8, 2012


Well, I take that back. I imagined that an elephant would cross a river with its snorkel held up. But a google image search proves otherwise. Consider me sold on this Russian mammoth.

What will the internet name it?
posted by peeedro at 11:04 AM on February 8, 2012


I want a bean feast.

Mayhaps ye'd like some Popcorn instead, m'lud?
posted by Smart Dalek at 11:05 AM on February 8, 2012


Just from the point of view, it must have been taken by someone at least 12 feet tall.
posted by mygoditsbob at 11:07 AM on February 8, 2012


I love cryptids...

Then you are going to love Ivan Sanderson. I've only read one of his books but I'm completely unsure how real that guy was. He debunks a lot of junk which makes you think he's skeptical (in the actual, questioning sense) so then he comes up with these other things and you are like...wait, how much bunking is going on here vs how much debunking?
posted by DU at 11:08 AM on February 8, 2012


Am I the only one who now wants to take the day off to play GTA San Andreas and look for Bigfoot in Back O' Beyond?

Yes? Oh....
posted by Lesser Shrew at 11:10 AM on February 8, 2012


My god, total fake. If it is a pachydermous type creature it sure doesn't have the build a fuckin' mammoth - looks waaaaaaaaay more like an elephant due to it's shape.

But the "trunk" looked all off color (hence the "fish"-carrying comments I'm seeing).
posted by symbioid at 11:11 AM on February 8, 2012


Hmm... when I look at it, I see the Pope, heading to the woods to perform some unspecified bodily function.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 11:11 AM on February 8, 2012


The video was taken last summer but is only surfacing now? Why?

Postproduction.
posted by mhoye at 11:13 AM on February 8, 2012 [1 favorite]


Then you are going to love Ivan Sanderson.

Sadly, I would have trouble getting my wife to let me bring a book called the The Abominable Snowman in the house because of her heartfelt belief that that phrase is bigoted against Yetis.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 11:13 AM on February 8, 2012


Have we ruled out aliens?
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 11:14 AM on February 8, 2012


They were extinct. Until global warming melted all the permafrost and... what I'm trying to say is, this is the Encino Man of wooly mammoths.
posted by fungible at 11:15 AM on February 8, 2012 [1 favorite]


Why "wooly" mammoth? Were there any other kind?

Sure, there was the downy mammoth, the furry mammoth, the fleecy mammoth, the laniferous mammoth and my favorite, the somewhat feculent flocculant mammoth.
posted by Floydd at 11:16 AM on February 8, 2012 [5 favorites]


Nice job, Apocryphon! I was reading comment after comment and delighting that I might get to the bottom without seeing a reference to Skyrim and YOU RUINED IT!

RUINED IT!!!!
posted by palidor at 11:16 AM on February 8, 2012


Buster: She's just wigged out because I have a girlfriend.

Lucille: A waiter hands him a note and suddenly he's Steve McQueen. He doesn't even know what she looks like.

Buster: I know that she's a brownish area with points.
posted by craven_morhead at 11:17 AM on February 8, 2012 [1 favorite]


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