Living environments and diet of the Mongochen mammoth, Gydan Peninsula, Russia

Remains of a male woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius Blumenbach, 1799), radiocarbon dated to cal. 18,370 14C BP, were discovered in perennially frozen deposits in northern West Siberia (Gydan Peninsula, 72°10′ N, 79°35′ E). Microfossil and macrofossil samples from the inner part of the mammoth intestinal content, samples of the coat and skull taken from the mammoth carcass and samples of frozen deposits enclosing the carcass were studied for the purpose of reconstructing the mammoth's diet, season of death, and its living environments. Pollen, biomorphs and plant macrofossils indicate that grasses and sedges were the main food items, supplemented with small amounts of dwarf birch and larch twigs and a variety of herbs and mosses. The plant remains found in the intestines indicate that the animal died in the middle of summer. The mammoth lived in a cold tundra-like environment with sedge-grass and dwarf shrub communities and scattered larch stands.