Perhaps the places in the city that inspire scientific curiosity are the best. One of them is the Talismán station on line 4 of the subway, where there is an almost complete mammoth skeleton in a display case. The acrylic dome that covers the remains of the mammoth is a bit opaque because it has been exposed to a lot of sunlight, but if you look out you can see the bones of the extinct and impressive Pleistocene animal. On one side there is a plaque that says that the mammoth was found in 1978 during the construction of the subway and that they decided to leave it right there, in the same position in which it died.
The skeleton belonged to an adult Columbian mammoth, a species distinguished by the large size of its tusks. This variety was endemic to the Americas. They lived from Texas to Nicaragua, although their greatest concentration was right in Sonora and the Valley of Mexico. Here the herds would gather to drink water from the various watering holes and swamps in the area of Lake Texcoco. That is why some paleontologists say that our country is the land of the mammoths. In fact, the Talisman subway specimen is very similar to the one in the Museo Casa Morelos in Ecatepec, the one in the Geology Museum -which is assembled with pieces of 12 different specimens- or the ones that have just been found in Tultepec.
For Lance Wyman, designer of the subway iconography, the fact that this specimen has appeared right on Talisman Avenue is a fortunate coincidence. In countries like China, Japan and India, elephants -especially if they have their trunks raised- are a symbol of good fortune, just like a talisman. That's why Wyman decided that the icon of the station would be a mammoth in that position.
This city is a beautiful bestiary.
.
More on Local.Mx
When El Chopo was a curious Natural History Museum