Adams mammoth

The mostly complete skeleton and flesh were discovered in 1799 in the northeastern Arctic Siberia peninsula Mys Bykov (near Bykovsky, Sakha Republic, Russia) on delta Lena river by Ossip Shumachov, an Evenki hunter[1] and subsequently recovered in 1806 when Russian botanist Mikhail Adams journeyed to the location and collected the remains.

[2] In 1728, Sir Hans Sloane published what can be considered the first comprehensive scientific paper on mammoths in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society.

In 1738, Johann Philipp Breyne argued that mammoth fossils represented some kind of elephant, but could not explain why a tropical animal would be found in such a cold area as Siberia; he suggested that they might have been transported there by Noah's flood.

All in all, Adams recovered the entire skeleton, minus the tusks, which Shumachov had already sold, and one foreleg; most of the skin, which he described as "of such an extraordinary weight, that ten persons ... moved it with great difficulty;" and nearly forty pounds of hair.

Tilesius made a set of etchings of his reconstruction and sent them other naturalists to examine[12] while he worked on a detailed report of the skeleton which was finally published in 1815.

The "Adams mammoth" on exhibit in Vienna
Early 19th century interpretation of the "Adams mammoth" carcass prior to excavation
Wilhelm Gottlieb Tilesius' etching of the Adams mammoth skeleton now on display in the Museum of Zoology , Saint Petersburg .