Global Warming Exposes Prehistoric Bones

The permafrost is thawing so quickly in Siberia, bones of prehistoric animals that have been buried for thousands of years, such as mammoths, woolly rhinos and lions are being exposed.

Although the rate of thawing is alarming to environmental scientists, it's created a financial boon for bone hunters.

In what used to be a chore, Russian bone hunters say that the Prehistoric bones are not very hard to find now. In certain places in the tundra, a trained eye can spot bones poking out through the soil every few meters, while others just lie on the surface.

Mammoth bones go for $10 to $190 for a kilogram . If a local is lucky, he can earn 200,000 roubles in just one day. It would normally take one year to make that kind of money in regular area jobs.

Most of the bones collected end up in the Museum of Moscow.

One local, Sergei Davydov, a 52-year-old scientist, does not sell the bones he collects. He keeps them in his home in Chersky to study the effects of climate change, but also because they fascinate him.

The bone hunter acknowledges that rising temperatures in Siberia have created financial prosperity for bone collectors. "As the permafrost thaws, we obtain yet more objects for study," he says.

But then he reflects: "From the point of view of humanity, it would have been better if this had never happened.".