42,000-Year-Old Baby Mammoth Coming to Jersey City This Fall
By Jon Whiten • Sep 9th, 2010 • Category: Blog, News
When the Field Museum’s traveling exhibition Mammoths and Mastodons: Titans of the Ice Age comes to the Liberty Science Center next month, it will bring with it the celebrated 42,000-year-old baby woolly mammoth Lyuba.
Lyuba, considered to be the best preserved and most complete mammoth ever, was discovered in northern Siberia three years ago by a reindeer herder, and named after his wife. The 45-inch long and 92-pound mammoth made its U.S. debut in March; Liberty Science Center will be just the second place she’s ever been exhibited.
But while Lyuba will bring the headlines, the exhibition features much more, including over 100 rare fossils, touchable casts, Ice Age hunting instruments, Paleolithic jewelry and ancient carvings. As is par for the course with any contemporary science exhibition, the artifacts will be accompanied by additional media exhibits, touchable displays and other hands-on experiences.
Liberty Science Center also says the exhibition is much more than a historical appreciation; it will help guests understand climate change and how changing ecosystems impact evolution.
“We tend to think of the Ice Age as a one-time event, but the Earth has experienced many alternating periods of cold and warmth,” Liberty Science Center president and CEO Emlyn Koster says. “What is different now is that in addition to an overall warming climate since the Ice Age, human and industrial activities that burn fossil fuels and produce heat continue to alter atmospheric conditions.”
Koster says he expects visitors to not only have a better understanding of climate change because of Mammoths and Mastodons, but also “a heightened sense of urgency” about the issue, “including the pressing need for green energy innovations.”
The exhibition will be at Liberty Science Center from October 16 to January 9, 2011. But Lyuba will only be on view for less than a month, from October 16 to November 10. After stopping in Jersey City, Lyuba — and the rest of the exhibition — will travel all over the country, from Alaska to Boston and many spots in between.
For more information on Mammoths and Mastodons, click here. For more information on Liberty Science Center, click here.
Photo: International Mammoth Committee/Francis Latreille – Courtesy of the Field Museum
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Jon Whiten is the founding editor of the Jersey City Independent; he now works for a public-policy nonprofit in Trenton.
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