Fact Check: No, these aren't real photos showing mammoth skeleton's excavation
Claim:
Four images shared in social media posts were authentic photographs of a well-preserved mammoth skeleton discovered at a North American archaeological site.
Rating:
Since 2024, a set of images has circulated online that allegedly shows the excavation of the complete skeleton of a mammoth. Mammoths were a type of large elephant that went extinct around 4,000 years ago, according to the Natural History Museum in London.
Two of the images appeared in multiple (archived) Facebook posts (archived) that paired them with a caption reading "Well-Preserved Mammoth Skeleton Unearthed at North America's Prominent Archaeological Site."
(Facebook user Husky Chukcha)
Other Facebook posts featured a collage that contained one of the same images alongside two different images that appeared to show the remains of mammoths emerging from the ground. The captions of these posts claimed the images showed a 15,000-year-old mammoth skeleton in North Africa.
(Facebook user DiggingInto Archaeology)
In short, none of the four images included in these posts were authentic photos of the remains of real mammoths. As a result, we've rated the images as fake.
Although we have not yet identified the original creator or creators of the images, they all showed signs of being the products of artificial intelligence software. The AI image detectors WasItAI and Illuminarty both found a high likelihood that someone created the images using AI.
Visual clues in the images also signaled that the images did not reflect reality. The skeletons in the images had multiple features that did not match the anatomy of real mammoth specimens held in the collections of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City and the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.
Most obviously, the alleged skeletal mammoth remains in the images investigated here included trunks and ears, which are respectively highlighted in red and yellow in the collage below. In one of the images, visible in the upper right corner of the collage, the mammoth's trunk also appeared to end in a tusklike point.
As is the case for those of modern elephants, mammoth trunks did not contain any bones, nor did they have sharp tips. Instead, real mammoth trunks consisted primarily of muscle. The external parts of mammoths' ears were likewise boneless (although, like humans, mammoths did have bones in their middle ears).
(Facebook users HuskyChukcha [left] and DiggingInto Archaeology [right])
Other anatomical features seen in the images also failed to match the real anatomy of mammoths, such as the oddly branching ribs visible in the image that appeared in all the posts linked above. The ribs in question are outlined in blue in the above collage.
In another image, which seemingly showed the mammoth skeleton from the rear, the mammoth appeared to have three separate tails emerging from its rump: one consisting of a single long, pointed bone and the other two resembling claws or talons, as can be seen surrounded by a green box in the above collage.
By contrast, real mammoths had only one tail each, and their tails were part of their vertebral columns — meaning they consisted of many smaller bones.
Finally, a real newly excavated mammoth skeleton would not stand upright on its own, as the skeletons in the images appeared to do. In order to produce the effect that a specimen is standing up, museum workers and other professionals who work with the fossils of mammoths, dinosaurs, and other animals must build and install complex mounts to support the bones and hold them in place.
Another hint that the posts about the alleged discovery did not reflect reality was the inconsistency of information included in text form in posts sharing the images. As mentioned above, some posts implied the discovery was North African, while others said the location was "North America's Prominent Archaeological Site" — without any indication of which of the North American continent's many archaeological sites was intended.
Some Facebook users also pointed out in comments that the scientists who excavate and study the fossilized remains of animals are called paleontologists, not archaeologists. That said, because mammoths and humans coexisted for tens of thousands of years, it's not unheard of for archaeological sites — that is, sites that show evidence of human activity — to also contain mammoth remains.
In the past, we investigated whether another image authentically showed the preserved remains of a baby mammoth that died about 30,000 years ago.
Clovis Mammoth Butchery: The Lange/Ferguson Site and Associated Bone Tool Technology – Center for the Study of the First Americans. https://liberalarts.tamu.edu/csfa/2018/05/04/clovis-mammoth-butchery-the-lange-ferguson-site-and-associated-bone-tool-technology/#:~:text=The%20Lange%2FFerguson%20site%20is,Clovis%2Dperiod%20mammoth%20butchering%20event. Accessed 14 Feb. 2025.
Dapcevich, Madison. "Authentic Picture of 30,000-Year-Old Baby Mammoth Remains?" Snopes, 14 Apr. 2024, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/baby-mammoth-picture/.
"How Are Skeletal Mounts of Dinosaurs in Museum Exhibits Built?" American Museum of Natural History, July 2012, https://www.amnh.org/explore/videos/dinosaurs-and-fossils/how-are-skeletal-mounts-of-dinosaurs-in-museum-exhibits-built.
Mammuthus Primigenius (Blumbach) | 3D Digitization. https://3d.si.edu/object/3d/mammuthus-primigenius-blumbach%3A341c96cd-f967-4540-8ed1-d3fc56d31f12. Accessed 14 Feb. 2025.
published, Cameron Duke. "Woolly Mammoths Survived on Mainland North America until 5,000 Years Ago, DNA Reveals." Livescience.Com, 22 Dec. 2021, https://www.livescience.com/woolly-mammoths-in-north-america-longer.
The Intersecting Crossroads of Paleontology and Archeology: When Are Fossils Considered Artifacts? (U.S. National Park Service). https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/the-intersecting-crossroads-of-paleontology-and-archeology-when-are-fossils-considered-artifacts.htm. Accessed 14 Feb. 2025.
The Last of the Mammoths | Natural History Museum. https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/last-mammoths.html. Accessed 14 Feb. 2025.
TRUTH OR TAIL: An Elephant's Trunk Has over 40,000 Muscles| Cleveland Zoological Society | June 26, 2023. https://www.clevelandzoosociety.org/z/2023/06/26/truth-or-tail-an-elephants-trunk-has-over-40000-muscles. Accessed 14 Feb. 2025.
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