Although archaeologists have discovered mammoth-like patterns in prehistoric cave paintings, this discovery still confirms that humans during the Ice Age were able to prey on mammoths. You must know that in the northern hemisphere at that time, nearly 40
area is covered by ice.
This discovery also suggests that human hunting may have further aggravated the extinction of mammoths.
The woolly mammoth, which is less than two meters long, had an injury on one of its legs, indicating that it had escaped an attack by another predator when it was young. Other wounds on its body also showed that it had experienced
An epic battle.
Some striking evidence found on the mammoth shows that it was involved in a life-and-death struggle with some of its top predators, possibly a lion.
In addition, because there are traces on this mammoth that may have been attacked by a lion, and wounds left by human saw-like tools, scientists also doubt that if the mammoth was attacked by a lion, then whether it was tamed by humans.
What about the lion?
All kinds of questions require research, and there is more than just one mammoth carcass here. So after harvesting, when you want to know more secrets, you can only work harder.
Several excavators started working at the same time, and soon a second, larger mammoth was unearthed. This mammoth was twice as big as an ordinary elephant, weighed eight tons, and had huge tusks. This allowed
Help them defend themselves from predators and dig out grass and shrubs for food in the ice and snow.
During the Ice Age, the giant mammoth evolved from the African elephant, so at first glance, you might think it was an elephant, but the mammoth actually had long hair.
Researchers will dissect the mammoth and use infrared scanning equipment to examine the mammoth's internal organ structure to understand how the mammoth adapted to the harsh cold environment.
In addition, the biggest task of these men recruited by Han Peacock is to use the latest technology to analyze the genetic sequence of mammoths to increase the possibility of cloning mammoths.
Han Kongque's research laboratory is fully capable of this technology. In order to bring the mammoth back to life, they began to extract genes from the discovered remains of the mammoth.
They first extracted samples from the extinct animal's left front leg bone marrow, which will be analyzed in the laboratory in the hope of cloning the prehistoric creature.
Of course, before that, it is best to decipher the entire genetic structure of the mammoth. These well-preserved remains have been frozen for about 28,000 years, and many tissues are still active, so they provide huge help to their research.
Therefore, after cleaning up the mammoth, the first step is to search for living cells, culture them, and then clone them, and the second step is to cultivate artificial living cells based on artificial nuclear genes.
Because these intact remains with hair provided great convenience for their work, not to mention, they also found mammoth blood near the torso of the remains.
Blood analysis showed that the remains belonged to a female mammoth between 50 and 60 years old.
Han Kongque helped his researchers use advanced methods to analyze the extracted samples. This is the only experimental team in Han Kongque's hands that focuses on molecular paleontology.
"We used bone marrow samples, which are one of the best materials for genetic analysis. Although we can't make a conclusion yet, it is speculated that a mammoth nuclear gene is composed of 40 million to 45 million nucleotides. If we can
Determining all the sequences will be a great progress for this research project and the cloning of mammoths."
"This research will promote the synthesis of artificial gene molecules and is a good project."
"It would be great if we could resurrect the mammoth."
Listening to the excited discussions of the researchers, not only Huangshan and the others found it boring, but even Han Peacock also felt very boring.
"You don't need these tusks, do you?" Han Peacock asked.
"It's useless. The ivory is completely useless."
Han Peacock stretched out his hand to see how to get the ivory off.
The mammoth's row of teeth was well preserved. If it moved, the Korean peacock immediately pried off a tooth. This was a molar tooth with a perfect appearance. The molar tooth is composed of dentin, cementum and enamel.
The molars have been buried in the ground for tens of thousands of years. Most of the molars excavated are in a semi-petrified state, but we can still distinguish the quality of the teeth. After sawing, the yellow color is the main trunk and the color is lighter. It has more dentin and a dense structure.
, the pattern is not that pretty.
After the molars are sectioned, the ones with large and thin patterns are better, the ones with small textures on the tooth surface and a circle pattern are better, the surface is heavily weathered, and the cut ones are darker.
However, if the surface of the molar teeth is intact and bright, they will be basically yellow after being cut, with neat lines, more dentin and cementum, and a fine and strong structure. However, like the tooth skin, it is highly shrinkable and needs to be treated well before it can be used.
In fact, products made from good mammoth ivory raw materials are no worse than modern ivory, and they are of great collection significance!
For example, the mammoth ivory discovered by Han Peacock is a very rare frozen soil material. Of course, it is only a raw material for mammoth ivory.
In fact, the best mammoth ivory is ice material. Ice material is the best kind of mammoth ivory raw material. Because it has been buried in the ice for a long time, it is well preserved, has no cracks and spots, and is of excellent quality. Currently, this is usually the only one on the market.
Only this grade of ivory meets the design requirements for jewelry production and processing.
Of course, this kind of material is very rare, accounting for only 15% of the total unearthed quantity. It is generally used to make some fine carvings, which are expensive and worth buying.
Next is the frozen soil material. The quality of the frozen soil material mammoth ivory is worse than that of the ice material, with more cracks, but the color changes are richer, and because it is much cleaner and purer than the soil material, it is also more popular in the market.
The third type is earth material. This kind of material basically belongs to the lowest category. Not only is there a lot of waste, but there is also calcification in many places, and the gloss and moistness are not very good. However, there are also many people who
You will like the rough and simple feeling on its surface. Generally, it appears in the form of small pieces on the market and the price is relatively low.
After the above three kinds of ivory, there is the molar tooth of the mammoth. Strictly speaking, it is different from the above three materials. It is also ivory, but it is the inner tooth of the mammoth.
Most of this material has been petrified and is mainly used to make some small pendants, but it also has a particularly good application, which is to make knife handles, which are very beautiful.
Of course, after cutting, it is not only useful for making knife handles, but also for other things, such as ivory combs.
Seeing the scientific workers not far away who were busy in full swing, Han Peacock ignored them. He said hello to Huangshan and the others, asking Huangshan and others to guard these guys and prevent them from being eaten by wolves.
He himself packed some ivory and got into the chaotic space.
Han Peacock had prepared various tools here early, and of course, most of them were brought in with catkins.
Now that the catkins are gone, Han Kongque can only process the ivory by himself, and he is also an expert in this area, but he is a bit unwieldy, but he only became familiar with the tools a little bit, and he became proficient.
The processing of molar teeth is very complicated. First, the surface of the molar teeth is coated with a layer of resin. It cannot be completely coated. It is necessary to leave a place with a large crack for pouring. This is done for the purpose of injecting glue.
Don't let the resin escape.
After the surface is treated, heat it to 5070 degrees to remove the moisture. It usually takes a few hours. It is convenient to use an oven. While it is hot, pour the high-permeability resin epoxy resin through the pouring port.
Inject slowly, and then solidify at about 50 degrees. This completes the first step.
The next step is to cut into pieces. Generally, the length of the molar teeth is more than 200 mm, the thickness is about 100 mm, and the height is 100 mm to 200 mm. It is most feasible to cut it by turning it sideways by 100, but the saw blade must be more than 300.
The molar teeth have an irregular shape, so the fixture is required to be semi-rigid. Use a 12-thick toothless saw blade for cutting. For saw blades above 300 rpm, adjust the rotation speed to 1400 rpm. At this time, the linear speed is already very high, and the motor power is 750 rpm.
superior
It is better to cut at a slow speed. Remember not to cut dry. Use a small tube to inject water into the incision to wash away the ground pulp, otherwise it will smell bad.
You can cut it into 3040mm thick chunks first, and then cut it into thin slices, or you can cut it into thin slices at once. One thing to note here is that the molar teeth are simply fixed once, and they will easily break when cutting into thin slices!
The tooth chosen by Korean Peacock is a molar tooth. Because it is made of frozen soil, its appearance is not good, but when cut, the color is much darker and the pattern is more beautiful. Different cutting directions can produce different patterns.
Moreover, this was a blue-striped molar tooth. After being cut open, the yellow and blue alternated, especially the blue in the middle, which looked very conspicuous. After a closer look, Han Peacock made his decision.
Since it is a blue-grained molar, it is necessary to choose the angle carefully and try to show the various patterns inside the molar.
Dry the cut large pieces of thick material, and then do the second glue injection process while it is still hot. So far, you have injected glue twice, and basically filled the big gap between the molars.
At this point it comes to an end, you can open the aniseed as you like.
Thanks to the second stabilization process, it is much easier to cut large and thick materials into thin slices. At this time, both sides of the aniseed are flat, and it is easy to cut into thin slices.
Note that although it has been roughly processed twice, there are still requirements for different cutting methods for the aniseed. For example, cutting with vertical lines is the safest. At this time, the strength is relatively high and it is not easy to cut. When the angle with the lines is small,
When the teeth are cut, the molars are very fragile, easy to break, and easy to crack, so it is best to process them again after cutting out 12 pieces.
The pattern obtained by cutting with vertical lines is monotonous and neat, while the pattern obtained by cutting with small angles is varied and changes with the change of polishing depth.
However, the pattern cut out of Xiaojiajiao may look better. If you choose a good angle, blue, yellow, and white are mixed together. If it is dark blue or sky blue, added in the middle of yellow and white ivory, it will look particularly eye-catching. To be finished