Details Relating to the Mud Burial Theory

33.  Away From Rivers,  Elevated Burials.  A very large mudslide, such as might occur near a river bank, is required to suffocate and bury large animals. Yet, frozen remains of mammoths and rhinoceroses are sometimes found in the interior of hilly islands, or on high ground far from rivers and river mud. Besides, northern Siberian rivers transport relatively little mud.¹⁵⁹ Mud moves slowly, if at all, on cold, flat, low plateaus. Rhinoceroses do not live far above the level of rivers or oceans.

34.  Yedomas and Loess,  Multi-Continental,  Frozen Muck,  -150°F.  The mud burial theory does not explain why mammoths, yedomas, and loess are related, why yedomas contain so much carbon, why these peculiar events occurred over such wide areas on three continents, where so much muck originated, why it contains buried forests, or why temperatures dropped rapidly to -150°F.

35.  Rock Ice.  Burial in mud that later froze would produce Type 1 ice, not Type 3 ice.

36.  Sudden Freezing.  The coldest a mud flow could be is 32°F. The air would be even warmer. If Berezovka had been encased in mud, a good insulator, his stomach contents would have taken at least 20 times longer to cool enough to stop acids and enzymes from destroying the vegetable matter in his stomach. Simply stated, burial in even cold, flowing mud could not freeze a mammoth rapidly enough. Even if the atmospheric temperature dropped to -200°F after the mammoth was buried, freezing would not be rapid enough to overcome the mud’s insulating effect.

37.  Dirty Lungs,  Peppered Tusks.  One researcher used the mud burial theory to explain why Dima had silt, clay, and small particles of gravel in his respiratory and digestive tract.¹⁶⁰ While these particles might enter the upper digestive tract, they would not enter the lungs and lower digestive tract. Such particles would need to be in the air for some time, as would occur during sustained high winds—such as the greatest storm the Earth has ever experienced. Nor would burial in mud fire millimeter-size particles, rich in iron and nickel, into mammoth tusks.

38.  Animal Mixes.  Many animals, such as beavers, marmots, voles, and squirrels, whose bones lie near frozen mammoths, do not create enough ground pressure to sink into mud.

39.  Upright. The upright Berezovka mammoth suffocated. Burial in a mudslide might explain his suffocation, but it would not explain his upright posture. Becoming stuck in shallow mud might explain the upright posture, but it would not explain the suffocation. The Benkendorf mammoth and others were also upright. [See Table 10 on page 269.]

40.  Vertical Compression.  Burial in a typical mud flow would not flatten Dima or produce the severe vertical compression found in Berezovka.

41.  Other/Feet.  Elephants rarely become stuck in mud, because their feet expand as weight is placed on them and narrow as they are lifted. In northern Siberia only a thin layer of soil thaws in the summer.

42.  Other/Mouth.  A large animal trapped in mud would probably live for hours, if not days. Therefore, food should not be preserved in its mouth and digestive tract, as occurred for a rhinoceros and several mammoths.

43.  Other/Scavengers.  Large animals buried in mud flows should frequently show marks of scavengers on the top parts of their bodies where mud had not yet reached. No known report has described such a pattern.

44.  Other/Rhinoceroses.  Rhinoceroses and babies (such as Dima) do not migrate as this theory proposes.