Tracking a mammoth-sized mystery Final Edition

• Published in: The Ottawa citizen (1986)
• Main Author: Kampouris, George
• Format: Newspaper Article
• Language: English
• Published: Ottawa, Ont Postmedia Network Inc 20.05.2003
• ISSN: 0839-3222

Mr. Mol, known as "Sir Mammoth" because of a knighthood conferred on him by Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, is one of the most widely consulted mammoth experts in the world. He appeared in the heavily hyped Discovery Channel special Raising the Mammoth in 2001 that dramatized the struggle to recover an entire frozen animal from the permafrost of Siberia. Although their publicized goal was to retrieve DNA from frozen tissue to clone a mammoth back from extinction, Mr. Mol scoffs at the notion. Among paleontologists, stories are told about colleagues who have dined on mammoth steaks, but few can recall anyone getting past the first bite. Although Mr. Mol, who keeps about a kilo of mammoth meat in his freezer for study, isn't brave enough to try it himself, he says that dogs love the stuff. Photo: Latreille/Cerpolex photo / Mammoth hunter Dick Mol, right, and explorer Bernard Buiges, on the deck of a fishing trawler, hold mammoth bones dredged from the bottom of the North Sea. The sea bottom, once a land bridge linking Europe and Britain, is covered by 50 metres of water.