mammoth expert Dick Mol (right, with blue tie) and next to him Evangelos Vlachos Ch, geologist and curator of the Mammoth Museum
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interview with the internationally renowned mammoth expert Dick mol from Hoofddorp (Netherlands)
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Question: Mr. mole, you have participated, together with Professor Dr. Evangelia Tsoukala at the opening ceremony of the new "Mammoth Museum" ("Mammoth Museum") in Thessaloniki (Greece) . What does this museum?
Answer: On Saturday, the 19th December 2009, the "Mammoth Museum in Thessaloniki was opened. This museum is based on finds of Pleistocene mammals from the North Sea floor, especially the woolly mammoth ( Mammuthus primigenius ) showed that the North Sea has been between the British Isles and continental Europe in the last ice age, a dry and cold steppe. You could wander between about 100,000 and 11,500 years before present in the Weichsel ice age from Holland to England without getting wet feet! There was then a haven for animals like the woolly mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, steppe bison, but also predators such as lion, bear, hyena, and even the saber-toothed cat Homotherium . The museum belongs to the dinosaur park of Thessaloniki (Macedonia), Greece and is very tastefully decorated by students of paleontology and geology of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Many great pictures of fishing boats, activities on board the boats and the fish catch and fossils to explain the interesting history of the present North Sea.
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Professor Evangelia Tsoukala of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
question: Who had the idea for the "Mammoth Museum"?
Answer: In June 2009, was my friend, Professor Evangelia Tsoukala of the Aristotle University in Thessaloniki, on a visit to the Netherlands. For several years we have worked intensively together. We dig a fauna from the Pliocene mastodons with such mammoth borsoni (European Mastodont) and Anancus arvernensis (Mastodont Auvergne) and have Milia, set up near Grevena (Western Macedonia, Greece) is a small museum. The schedule is a very large center for paleontology in Milia. To this end, we conducted many interviews. Of course, I have a wife Tsoukala shown the remains of the North Sea. She was very impressed not only by the quality, but also by the large quantity of finds, which brought every week by the fishermen on land is. Now proposed by Mrs Tsoukala to establish a museum of fossils from the North Sea in Thessaloniki (which is also on the sea), of course with original findings. The "Mammoth Museum" was built by Vassilis Michailidis, the owner of the Hotel Nouvelle "and the dinosaur park in Thessaloniki.
Vassilis Michailidis (left), hotelier and owner of the Mammoth Museum, "with Dick Mol
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question: Who is responsible for the "Mammoth Museum"?
Answer: Responsible for the "Mammoth Museum is Evangelos Vlachos Ch, a Greek geologist and student of Evangelia Tsoukala. He is curator of the Mammoth Museum, has done the most work in developing and writing a brochure about the museum.
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question: If to admire in "Mammoth Museum" particularly impressive original findings?
Answer: Yes, there are some very beautiful and spectacular plays like a mammoth skull together with the upper jaw, molars and tusks. Unfortunately, not completely but very big and impressive. Some extremities, such as femur, tibia bone, and so on can be found. Also I would like to point to the display of the permanent teeth of mammoths. Combines all elements of the upper teeth and lower jaw are issued. Also, the horizontal change of teeth is explained and that we can determine the basis of a molar tooth, the individual age of the mammoth. This, in my discretion, unique in the world.
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logo of the "Mammoth Museum
Question: Where can I find the" Mammoth Museum "?
Answer:
Multispace Nouvelle, 70 KM, Thessaloniki - Oreokastro.
PO 57 013, Thessaloniki, tel: 2310-686544-5,
Fax: 2310 686546, Mobile: 6976432675
http://www.mouseiomamouth.gr
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Question: Can I find out about the "Mammuthus Museum" on the Internet?
Answer: the Internet addresses http://www.mouseiomamouth.gr and soon http://www.mammothmuseum.gr - currently only in Greek, but soon also in English.
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presentation of the certificate for the "Guinness World Record" (longest tusks in the world) to the Prefect of Grevena
Question: When and how did your collaboration with Professor Dr. Evangelia Tsoukala started?
Answer: I knew Mrs. Evangelia Tsoukala of their scientific work on Pliocene and Pleistocene mammals for many years. In 2006 I visited them the first time. Then she showed me the rich collections, especially the remains of mastodons, the area of Grevena. In 2007, we have together led the excavation in the sand pit of Milia, where we have uncovered a partial skeleton of mammoth borsoni . It was an experience I will never forget. It was the summer, it was very hot, 46 degrees Celsius. I was then more used to working in the cold of arctic Siberia. But the Mastodont of Milia was special: Insane large (3.50 m shoulder height) and tusks with a length of 5 meters and 2 centimeters! They are the longest tusks in the world, you know! In summer 2007, this was a "Guinness World Record (GWR) recognized and presented a certificate from GWR to Professor Tsoukala and the Prefect of Grevena. Professor Tsoukala and I are friends, since 2006 we have already carried out many projects in common: for example, at the site Milia 5 rescued from the forest elephant Kaloneri, a Pliocene rhinoceros excavated, starting a project in Siatista and now the "Mammoth Museum in Thessaloniki. Various scientific publications are currently in print.
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question: was 2009 for you as a mammoth expert for a successful year?
Answer: Yes, 2009 was very successful. I have conducted several successful expeditions to the North Sea. I was in Weimar with Dr. Ralf-Dietrich Kahl (Research Station for Quaternary Paleontology), six times I had visited in Greece, a time in Romania and there I got the reference of the Racos-mastodons ( Anancus arvernensis ) and was there when the last remains were recovered. I have measured the Racos-mastodons and a study of started. In Bulgaria, I have visited many important paleontological collections and determine in Serbia (Kostolac), the steppe mammoth ( Mammuthus trogontherii ), which was discovered in 2009, studied and can be: a male animal, a bull, in old age (according to the last molars, who have been bitten far). And in France, I carried out with Dr. Frédéric Lacombat (paleontologist at the Museum Crozatier, Le Puy-en-Velay) our work on the steppe mammoth Nolhac (Auvergne). We also continued working on the program for the international conference "Mammoths and Their Relatives" the next year in Le Puy-en-Velay to take place in the Auvergne. There have now been registered 130 scientists, experts in the field of recent and fossil mammoths, from all over the world. Also, I was in Italy to study in the area of Turin mastodons and to visit some classic references in the Piedmont. In December of that year I was at Eppelsheim, in order to visit the beautiful Dinotherium Museum, and the next day the Paleontological Museum in kidney stone. Since I had previously been yet, although I am often in the vicinity of Mainz, and I must say that it is a very good and impressive museum of father and son Harald Arnulf Stapf Stapf. The skeletons of sea cows from the Mainz Basin I was very impressed. What is there for fine specimens are issued. I really enjoyed that! In May 2009 came the book "De Groote Wielen, as in de Groote Wielen woonden ijstijd in de?" Published in Dutch. The book I had with my friend, Anton Verhagen from 's-Hertogenbosch written. The book, richly illustrated, has succeeded very well in my discretion. It sold thousands of copies.
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paintings by artist Remie Bakker of mammoth borsoni
question: will you children or adults sometimes asked how to be mammoth expert do?
Answer: Yes, I think a lot of talks about Ice Age mammals, and also about the woolly mammoth and my expeditions. These lectures are intended for young and old. Again and again I have to say that I am by profession a customs officer at the airport in Amsterdam and my money is not paid as a paleontologist. Although I am an honorary research associate of two museums: one is the Natural History Museum in Rotterdam and the other is the Musée Crozatier in Le Puy-en-Velay in France. In Le Puy, there are very interesting and ancient collections of Early Pleistocene mammal remains from the Auvergne. The French Jean-Baptiste and Antoine Claude Gabriel Croizet Jobert there researched and 1828 Anancus arvernensis have (then Mastodon arvernensis ) first described. Such information is very appreciated by the audience, I think.
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painting of a mammoth Remie Bakker for the cover of the book "De Groote Wielen, as he woonden in de Groote Wielen in de ? ijstijd "
question: Do you know at all how many books you have written and published in view of their diligence to write?
Answer: I have learned from my parents that we all must share. I have some knowledge about ice age mammals in the far most sense. I like to share this knowledge, not only with professional paleontologists, but also with lay people. Not only in books but also in smaller papers and museums. I have over the past 40 years, published hundreds of publications, including several books, often with like-minded people. How many books exactly would I look. But I think the most important works can be found on the web.
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model of the mastodon Auvergne called Anancus arvernensis of Remie Bakker and Dick Mol
Question: Have you made for the new year 2010 as a mammoth expert anything special?
Answer: The year 2010 will be a real mammoth year. The aforementioned mammoth conference will take place. At the same time in Le Puy-en-Velay, a major exhibition "Mammoths & Cie" planned. For this exhibition, the artist build Remie Bakker of Rotterdam and I am currently a lifelike model of Anancus arvernensis , the Mastodon of the Auvergne. It's almost done, unfortunately I can not even show how it looks, but I can say that it is really spectacular! A Model in 1:10 scale, I show it to you. And I am convinced that the "Mammoth Museum in Thessaloniki is very well attended. It is an original museum with a special history, namely through dramatic climate changes that are also still very relevant! In the "Mammoth Museum, visitors can learn about the ice ages, the climate and the then Wildlife, an extinct animal world. Each visitor is guided in the "Mammoth Museum by students at the Aristotle University. Yes, these are students of Professor Dr. Evangelia Tsoukala.
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The questions for the interview, the Wiesbaden-based science writer Ernst Probst, who runs the weblog "mammoth newspaper http://www.mammut-zeitung.blogspot.com and 2009, the books" The Ur-Rhine, "" cave lions "," saber-toothed cats "and" The Cave " published.
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