Mystery solved: Explorers Club meal wasnt woolly mammoth

By Frank Eltman, Associated Press

Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2016 | 11:45 a.m.

A Yale researcher says a lavish 1951 dinner in New York City promoted by
the Explorers Club didn't actually include 250,000-year-old woolly
mammoth, despite folklore about the event.

Nor did the feast for Explorers Club members include meat from an
extinct giant sloth, as the menu promised.

A new DNA analysis from a fist-sized piece of meat that survived the
soiree at a hotel has shown the morsel was actually green sea turtle meat.

The Explorers Club funded the Yale analysis and says it is pleased with
the results.

Will Roseman is executive director of the organization of scientists and
others devoted to protecting the planet. He notes that the mindset 65
years ago was much different.

The analysis was published Wednesday in the science journal PLOS ONE.