Something large and catastrophic froze those mammoths in place. Many of them still had undigested food still in their stomachs, and their bodies were perfectly preserved in ice.
Now, what on earth can drop the air temperature so fast that it can instantly freeze something as big as a mammoth?
I don’t have a ready answer for that, but it happened. One of the more curious things, though, is that explorers haven’t found a similar number of quick-frozen humans in the same areas.
I’ve commented on this before. They are called “temperature inversions” of the severest kind. They occur when very cold upper air drops due to condensed moisture at near freezing temperatures.
When it lands on earth, because of its massive size, it kills by a literal flash freezing, all life. It freezes the lungs of living creatures which explains why the mammoths still had buttercups and other freshly eaten plants in their stomachs (not digested).
While my description might be somewhat general, I believe that it is close to what a massive temperature inversion can do.
Some holes in massive cloud formations are attributed to temperature inversions. I don’t have any more information on this except that photos of such holes show a nearly uniform circular pattern, like a donut hole does.
I would appreciate any additional information as it has been decades since I last read up on this subject.
“Now, what on earth can drop the air temperature so fast that it can instantly freeze something as big as a mammoth?”
That’s the million dollar question, and I can’t answer it either, but I’m pretty certain it won’t be explained via “gradualism”.