"We learned that seals were coming to a bad end and being mummified by nature in Antarctica in 1200 A.D. That was interesting and we wondered what was happening in Antarctica at that time...one of the technicians... noticed that a seal carcass that he himself had shot for dog-meat and that got left out through the winter... [looked] just like the mummified seals that they had been sending in. So without telling too many people what he was doing, he sent this mummified seal to be carbon-dated and do you know it was dated to 1200 A.D., and he had shot it the year before. When that was made public it really caused a storm."
http://quest.nasa.gov/antarctica/background/NSF/valleys.html
Mummified seals
The lower part of the Wright Valley, below Lake Vanda, is zoologically interesting. Scattered over several miles are mummified, rock-hard carcasses of Weddell seals. Radiocarbon dating of the remains is difficult, but scientists estimate that the carcasses are between 2,500 to 3,500 years old. Their travel inland so far from their coastal habitat is somewhat of a mystery.
http://www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/tei-Bio15Tuat03-t1-body-d10.html
THE PRESENCE OF mummified seal carcases in both glaciated and ice-free regions of McMurdo Sound was first reported by early British expeditions (Scott, 1905; Wilson, 1907). Dead crabeater seals (Lobodon carcinophagus) were found as much as 35 miles inland on the surface of a glacier more than 3000 feet above sea level. Similarly, Weddell seals (Leptonychotes weddellii) were found 20 miles inland at heights of 2400 feet (Wilson, 1907) and one Weddell seal was found at 5000 feet (Scott, 1905).
Summary
1. The locations of 121 mummified seal carcases encountered in ice-free Victoria and Wright Valleys of South Victoria Land are described. Seal remains were found up to 40 miles inland and at a maximum altitude of 3000 ft.
2. Seventy-two seals were examined in detail; of these 35 were identified with certainty as crabeaters (Lobodon carcinophagus) and 6 as Weddell seals (Leptonychotes weddelli).
3. The condition of the seals varied from ‘minimal’, represented by small pieces of skin and bone, to one relatively fresh carcase.
4. Samples from two seal carcases gave radiocarbon ‘ages’ of 780 years and 100 years.
5. An average rate of entry into the valley system of one seal every 4-8 years has been calculated using the condition of the seal remains in relation to the radiocarbon ‘ages’ obtained.
6. All the carcases measured were those of immature animals, apparently less than one year old. It is suggested that the mummified remains represent disorientated young that fail to return to the pack-ice at the onset of winter. Some of these seals enter the dry-valley region to die of starvation, and to be preserved to view.
There we have it. Seal pups get lost, ‘walk’ 40 miles and climb to an elevation of 3,000 feet.