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Real (dead) Mammoth in the Flesh at the Natural History Museum


Today the Natural History Museum (NHM) exhibits the actual remains of a Mammoth, a baby Mammoth named Lyuba (pronounced Loo-ba, meaning Love).
Perfectly preserved due to the bacteria surrounding her after she accidentally choked to death, she was found by herders in 2007.
She's  been compared to the size of a 'large dog', and now hovers in a glass dark box in the middle of the NHM's new exhibition 'Mammoths, Ice Age Giants'.


Emotive eyes
As it's so well preserved scientists are still learning about it everyday; DNA samples have been removed and examined, what they know already is she died with some of her mothers milk still in her tummy.
It doesn't get more personal than that, does it?
I have to say as it's a rolling exhibit and Lyuba belongs to The Yamal-Nenents Regional Museum- Siberia, near where she was found; to see her in the 'flesh' as it were is truly a once in a lifetime thing.
Personally I feel it is pretty impressive to be so close to an actual real (dead) Mammoth, who was alive on the Earth years before any of our time.

The exhibition is cleverly created by The Field Museum, Chicago  putting Lubya aged 40,000 years into context surrounded by what would have been animals alive at the same time as Lubya.
All displayed in a seperate exhibition in the  beautiful historic yet modern building of the NHM.

To start with you learn all about the different kinds of Mammoth, being able to touch the life size trunks created with so much detail you can feel their little hairs.
Then go through some other hands-on models to learn the basics of how trunks work, the necks and their balance of load. 
Learn too about how the size of a Mammoth (and many other animals)can change depending on the amount of food source available.
Pygmy Mammoth at front, still is huge
Pygmy Mammoths are included, some of these migrated to places as far as California and Crete.
You learn things you didn't know you didn't know, no matter what age you are.
Guess which animal left the faeces?- lift the lid to find out.

 DNA analysis of the Mammoth's Ivory tusks show its a relation of the Elephant and so the exhibit finishes with the cousin Elephant and it's possible extinction, making it very relevant to todays times and the lessons we need to learn if we are going to keep our largest animals alive, far from them being untouchable, they need our protection.

Wooly Mammoth, in all terrains, not just the Ice Age

The whole exhibition though not enormous in itself, is filled with life size models to really evoke the sense of the size of things, of a time so far gone, its the only way to relate.

Explanations of all things with a Latin name are very well delivered, as are the fun interactive elements of the exhibition; ways to feel what a Mammoths fur might be like, or lift the weight of its food, or even what it's faeces looks like (pic above).
Get down here to get involved, check out the life of the Wooly Mammoth- and see a real (dead) one too.

Dates: 23rd May to 7 September 2014. 10am to 5.50pm last admission 5.15
Cost: Adult £10, Child and Concession £6, Family £28- includes voluntary donation, allowing Gift Aid to be claimed on whole ticket price by the Natural History Museum.
Else: Adult £9, Child and Concessions £5.40, Family £25
Free for Members and Patrons
Nearest Tube : South Kensington. Circle, District and Piccadilly Lines

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Location: Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, Kensington, London SW7 5BD, UK

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