Science: Young Visitor

The mammoth was a baby perhaps only a few days old. It was still bald, like its relatives, the modern elephants, rather than hairy like its own parents. It stood about 3 ft. high and weighed more than 200 lbs. One day, some 15,000 years ago, something happened to the baby mammoth. It may have stumbled into a bog or into quicksand, and been unable to get out. Perhaps the bank of a prehistoric river caved in on it. It sank down into the cold, Pleistocene mud, which kept out the air and preserved the body. With the coming of winter,...