Researcher Michael Oard has recently written about the findings from studies of two well preserved baby mammoths.
‘The frozen mummy of ‘Lyuba’ was found in 2007 along the banks of the Yuribey River in the Yamal Peninsula of northwestern Siberia. ‘Khroma’ was found in 2008 in northeast Siberia. They both died at one to two months old and were well fed at the time based on the abundance of fat and the milk residues in their stomachs.’
What was found surprised researchers: ‘They discovered that both mammoths died of asphyxia after aspirating ‘mud’. Mud is technically defined as a combination of silt and clay, but sand was also found. The mud was packed extensively in Lyuba’s mouth, oral cavity, trunk, and lungs. Although most of Khroma’s trunk and lungs were scavenged, the CT scan was able to show a column of sediment packed her trachea, oral cavity, and nasal passages. At first researchers thought the findings indicated death by drowning, but it soon became apparent that neither animal died by drowning.’
Oard goes on to criticise the thesis of death-by-mud, as this proposal by researchers seems to have been offered out of desperation.
Although the two mammoths were found 5000 kilometres apart Oard proposes that the mammoths asphyxiated during severe dust storms: ‘These dust storms could easily have suffocated and buried the animals, with some in a general standing position. The cold temperatures would have frozen them quickly from the cold air above and from the permafrost below as it would gradually have risen to incorporate the newly laid dust. The freezing process would have been fast enough in some cases to preserve carcasses from decay. This model provides a better explanation of why the mammoths’ lungs and stomachs were filled with ‘mud’.’
One puzzling finding Oard notes is: ‘sponge spicules found in the ingested ‘mud’ of both mammoths. Sponges are normally marine organisms, but they are also found in some freshwater lakes. Spicules are (often needle-like) skeletal structures left over after a sponge decays. The researchers automatically assumed the sponges came from a freshwater environment.’ (1)
However, as Oard notes sponge spicules have also been found in loess deposits; at the base of some loess deposits is found coarse rounded gravel which is indicative of water deposition. According to Oard loess is reworked mud that was originally deposited in catastrophic floods, later this mud dried, then stirred up by powerful cold winds overcome and entombed many animals at northern latitudes.
Given the immense volume of loess deposits- covering about 10% of Earth’s land surface- it would appear that not only were the mammoths of Siberia buried in a catastrophe but the agent of their doom had formed in a prior cataclysm. (2)
References:1. Oard. Michael. J. 2015. Evidence some woolly mammoths asphyxiated from dust.
Journal of Creation Vol. 29 No. 3.
2. Oard. Michael. J. 2007. Loess problems.
Journal of Creation Vol. 21 No. 2. (
http://creation.com/loess-problems)