Many theories have been speculated. One of the most popular is that the hairy elephants were peculiarly grazing on grass and bur cucumber and were suddenly struck by a huge freezing storm blowing from the Arctic Ocean. Millions of them froze instantly. This kind of quick freeze has never been observed, so some special and imaginative ideas have been proposed. One question seems to always lead to another.
Frozen carcasses
As if the existence of frozen carcasses isn’t mysterious enough, several aspects of the carcasses are very puzzling.
A number of carcasses, as well as a few skeletons, have been discovered in a general standing position. It looks like the animal sank in a bog, but generally Siberian bogs are not deep enough to bury an animal that size. Also, the majority of the sediment surrounding the carcasses is not bog sediment.
The mammoth discovered near the Beregovaya River in Russia in 1900 was found in a sitting position, although it had seemingly slid down the slope probably before discovery. The unusual position of this mammoth indicates that the sliding probably did not change the original position of the mammoth at death. Even the trees were still upright in the material that slid down the hill.
Strangely, scientists investigating three woolly mammoths and two woolly rhinos, including the Berezovka mammoth, found they all died by suffocation. For a live animal to die of suffocation, it had to be buried rapidly or drowned.
Several of the carcasses have broken bones. Both of the upper front leg bones and some of the ribs of the Selenginsk mammoth were broken. It was also missing its head. The Berezovka mammoth had a broken pelvis, ribs, and right foreleg. It takes quite a force to break the bones of a mammoth.
The broken bones have inspired the story that the Berezovka mammoth was grazing on grass and bur cucumber when it accidentally fell into a crevasse in the permafrost. Then it was rapidly covered and suffocated. But even more confusing is the question of how these many mammoths and other animals ended up inside the permafrost layer, before they rotted.
Not only is it difficult to explain the upright burial, but even more intriguing is the question of how these many mammoths and other animals ended up inside the permafrost layer before they rotted, below the surface of the permafrost, before they rotted away. Both carcasses and bones had to be buried quickly, below the summer melt layer, before they rotted.
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