We assembled most of a Siberian mammoth today, in the atrium of the main state office building, adjacent to the AZGS offices. The mammoth was excavated in Siberia by the Natural History Museum in Novosibirsk and is on loan to AZGS. Eventually, it's expected to find a permanent home in a museum somewhere in the world.
This was the first time I've seen how the pieces come together. Museum Director Igor Grebnev and Deputy Director Oleg Medvedev snapped and bolted bones together and slipped ball sockets into hip sockets like seasoned pros.
The biggest challenge was getting 6 giant crates loaded by hand onto a truck, followed by mounting the skull onto the vertebral column and post. I'm aching already.
We had a constant stream of passersby who marveled as we did, with the speed and simplicity of the assembly. There were more than enough quips about Legos, tinkertoys, and erector sets.
Tomorrow, after a few repairs to some pieces that got banged around in shipping, we should finish inserting all the ribs, and top it off with installing the tusks.
When I asked how they would make one small repair, the answer was "bondo."