IF you’re
planning a holiday in London, think about putting a date with Lyuba at the
Natural History Museum on your to-do list.
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| Lyuba © International Mammoth Committee and Francis Latreille |
Lyuba is a
37-day-old animal which died 42,000 years ago, but today she’s the star of Mammoths: Ice Age Giants, an exhibition
which showcases the fascinating creatures which met their end less than
4,000 years ago.
Discovered in 2007
in Russia, Lyuba was preserved in the Siberian permafrost. Her body –
approximately the size of a large dog – was buried in wet clay and mud which
then froze. It was found by a reindeer herder
Yuri Khudi and his sons as they were looking for wood along the frozen Yuribei
River. She was sent to the Shemanovsky Museum in Salekhard, Russia, and named
Lyuba (pronounced Loo-ba) after Yuri’s wife, meaning love in Russian.
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| Columbian mammoth Short faced cave bear and Saber toothed cat NHM London |
The exhibition takes
visitors on an inspiring journey from the time when these creatures roamed the planet
through to today’s research into the causes of mammoth extinction and ways to
protect their precious modern relative, the elephant. Exhibits include the
spiral-tusked Columbian mammoth, dwarf mammoths, the mastodon, sabre-tooth cats and giant cave bears.
Professor Adrian
Lister, mammoths researcher at the Natural History Museum says: ‘This
exhibition is very exciting, as these amazing creatures were not only giants of
the Ice Age, but the science behind their incredible lives is still relevant to
the natural world today. This exhibition promises a rare glimpse into the Ice
Age world of mammoths and their relatives through life-sized models, original
skeletons and fossils and of course Lyuba, the best preserved and most complete
mammoth ever discovered.’
The
exhibition runs from May 23 to September 7. Adult entry is £9.00, children and
concessions £5.40, family tickets are £25 and entry for children under four is free.
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