Digging mammoths in the Arctic isn’t as pretty and sci-fi as this new Lego set suggests

A kid playing with the new Lego City set about Arctic exploration might think that scientists excavate mammoths and saber-toothed cats out of ice cubes using enormous saws, ice crawling machines with huge claws, and four propeller choppers. The reality, unfortunately, is not nearly as sci-fi, according to experts. “The real version is a lot dirtier, murkier, a lot more kind of like a home-improvement kit you got out of the back door to get the job done,” says Victoria Herridge, a paleobiologist and scientific associate at the Natural History Museum in London. “The animals themselves would be more like a zombie version of a mammoth as opposed to a pristine one.” Image: Lego The new Lego City set is coming out on... Continue reading…