During the latest ice age, i.e. 25-15 thousand years ago, it was not that cold in the subarctic part of the trans-Ural region as it had been considered earlier. The territory was not covered by glacial wilderness, but by dry and low-snowy steppe. In these conditions, large herbivorous animals, such as mammoths, woolly rhinoceroses (Coelodonta), reindeers, musk-oxen and even ordinary horses felt pretty well. Glaciation took place much earlier in these area - more than 40 thousand years ago.
Such conclusion has been made by the researchers of Moscow Institute of Geography and St.-Petersburg State University, after they investigated remains of plants and bones of large animals found on the banks of the Ob River in the area of polar circle. Bones and teeth of the mammoth, musk-ox and horse, pieses of wood, twigs of bushes, peat and silt were exposed to radiocarbon analysis. Almost all bones turned out to be younger than 40 thousand years, while glacial sediment is evidently more ancient.
These results disagree with the official point of view on the relatively recent (20-18 thousand years ago) glaciation in this region, but they coincide with the researchers of other scientists who assert that 20 thousand years ago the trans-Ural region was not covered by glacier.
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