Frozen mammoths

Bones, ivory, and flesh are found on higher ground, such as in yedomas and on Arctic islands. (The preceding paragraphs explains why mammoth remains are found in yedomas.) Prey and predator may also have sought protection from the greater common enemy—rising waters from rain that preceded the muddy hail, and noxious gases evaporating from the hail. Larger animals, such as mammoths and rhinoceroses, in rushing to higher ground, crushed and buried smaller animals in mud and ice.

The massive, violent hail storm buried mammoths and rhinoceroses alive, many standing up and compressed from all sides. Babies, such as Dima, were flattened. Exposed parts of adult bodies, unsupported by bone, were vertically flattened. Sometimes even strong bones were crushed by axial compression. Encasement in muddy ice maintained the alignment of Berezovka’s leg bone as it was crushed lengthwise, before or soon after death.