Abu Dhabi now home to a woolly mammoth
Marina Mall in Abu Dhabi now boasts a 15,000 year old woolly mammoth (well, a skeleton of one).
The fossil was discovered in the late 1990s on the banks of the Irtysh River in Siberia, and is considered one of the largest and most complete woolly mammoth skeletons ever discovered.
The behemoth weighs one tonne and stands at four metres tall (that’s two times Le Bron James height-wise).
Visitors to Marina Mall can now see the fossil up close free of charge, and the display is permanent.
MORE ABOUT MAMMOTHS
A woolly mammoth restoration at the Royal British Columbia Museum. Image: WolfmanSF/Wikimedia Commons
– They strongly resembled elephants (but were just hairier)
– They had short ears and tails to minimise frostbite
– Little is known about why the species became extinct around 10,000 years ago, but it’s widely considered to be due to a combination of climate change and human hunting
– Woolly mammoths were found in Asia, Europe and North Africa
– A fully-grown mammoth could weigh around eight tonnes, the same as a double decker bus
– They were gentle creatures, that mostly just grazed on grass
– Their coats varied in colour between dark and light brown, and they had a shorter undercoat as well as an outercoat made of long hairs
An 1885 illustration of a woolly mammoth. Image: The British Library/Wikimedia Commons.
Marina Mall, Corniche Road, Ras Al Akhdar, Abu Dhabi, free, daily 5pm, 7pm, 9pm. Tel: (02) 6812310. Taxi: Marina Mall. marinamall.ae
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