North AsiaNorth Asia or Northern Asia, also referred to as Siberia, is the northern region of Asia, which is defined in geographical terms and is coextensive with the Asian part of Russia, and consists of three federal districts of Russia: Ural, Siberian, and the Far Eastern. North Asia is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to its north; by Eastern Europe to its west; by Central and East Asia to its south; and by the Pacific Ocean and North America to its east. It covers an area of , or 8.
TengrismTengrism (also known as Tengriism, Tengerism, or Tengrianism) is an ethnic Turkic, Yeniseian, Mongolic religion originating in the Eurasian steppes based on shamanism and animism. It generally involves the titular sky god Tengri, who is not considered a deity in the usual sense, but a personification of the universe. According to some scholars, adherents of Tengrism view the purpose of life, to be in harmony with the universe.
YakutsYakuts or Sakha (саха, ; сахалар, ) are a Turkic ethnic group who mainly live in the Republic of Sakha in the Russian Federation, with some extending to the Amur, Magadan, Sakhalin regions, and the Taymyr and Evenk Districts of the Krasnoyarsk region. The Yakut language belongs to the Siberian branch of the Turkic languages. According to Kulakovskiĭ, the Russian word was taken from Evenk екэ , but the Russian word is actually a corruption from the Tungusic form. The Yakuts call themselves , or (Yakut: Уран Саха, ) in some old chronicles.
Panthera spelaeaPanthera spelaea, also known as the Eurasian cave lion, European cave lion or steppe lion, is an extinct Panthera species that most likely evolved in Europe after the third Cromerian interglacial stage, less than 600,000 years ago. Phylogenetic analysis of fossil bone samples revealed that it was highly distinct and genetically isolated from the modern lion (Panthera leo) occurring in Africa and Asia. Analysis of morphological differences and mitochondrial data support the taxonomic recognition of Panthera spelaea as a distinct species that genetically diverged from the lion about .
DolgansDolgans (Долганы; Dolgan: Долган, Дулҕан Dulğan, Һака (Sakha); Yakut: тыа-киһи) are an ethnic group who mostly inhabit Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia. They are descended from several groups, particularly Evenks, one of the indigenous peoples of the Russian North. Dolgans are the most closely related to the Sakha. They adopted a Turkic language sometime after the 18th century. The 2010 Census counted 7,885 Dolgans. This number includes 5,517 in former Taymyr Autonomous Okrug.
Krasnoyarsk KraiKrasnoyarsk Krai (Krasnoyarskiy kray, krəsnɐˈjarskjɪj ˈkraj) is a federal subject of Russia (a krai) located in Siberia. Its administrative center is the city of Krasnoyarsk, the third-largest city in Siberia, after Novosibirsk and Omsk. Comprising half of the Siberian Federal District, Krasnoyarsk Krai is the largest krai in Russia, the second-largest federal subject in the country after neighboring Sakha, and the third-largest country subdivision by area in the world.
YakutskYakutsk (Якутск; Дьокуускай, ɟokuːskaj) is the capital city of Sakha, Russia, located about south of the Arctic Circle. Fueled by the mining industry, Yakutsk has become one of Russia's most rapidly growing regional cities, with a population of 355,443 at the 2021 Census. Yakutsk has an average annual temperature of , winter high temperatures consistently well below , and a record low of . As a result, Yakutsk is the coldest city in the world. Yakutsk is also the largest city located in continuous permafrost; the only other large city is Norilsk, also in Siberia.
ReindeerThe reindeer or caribou (Rangifer tarandus) is a species of deer with circumpolar distribution, native to Arctic, subarctic, tundra, boreal, and mountainous regions of Northern Europe, Siberia, and North America. This includes both sedentary and migratory populations. It is the only representative of the genus Rangifer. Herd size varies greatly in different geographic regions. More recent studies suggest the splitting of reindeer and caribou into six distinct species over their range.
Woolly mammothThe woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) is an extinct species of mammoth that lived during the Pleistocene until its extinction in the Holocene epoch. It was one of the last in a line of mammoth species, beginning with the African Mammuthus subplanifrons in the early Pliocene. The woolly mammoth began to diverge from the steppe mammoth about 800,000 years ago in East Asia. Its closest extant relative is the Asian elephant. The Columbian mammoth (Mammuthus columbi) lived alongside the woolly mammoth in North America, and DNA studies show that the two hybridised with each other.
Mammoth steppeDuring the Last Glacial Maximum, the mammoth steppe, also known as steppe-tundra, was once the Earth's most extensive biome. It stretched east-to-west, from the Iberian Peninsula in the west of Europe, across Eurasia to North America, through Beringia (what is today Alaska) and Canada; from north-to-south, the steppe reached from the arctic islands southward to China. The mammoth steppe was cold and dry, and relatively featureless, though topography and geography varied considerably throughout.
