EDMONTON — University of Alberta scientist Duane Froese was on sabbatical last summer when he received a call from a Yukon miner who wanted to give him the heads-up about a site he planned to excavate. Like most Klondike miners, Tony Beets is a character. He’s tall, bushy-haired, drives fast and uses colourful language. But he’d also been incredibly helpful over the years, moving in heavy equipment for scientists such as Froese, exposing layers of ancient permafrost that yielded the frozen bones of woolly mammoths, scimitar cats, short-faced bears and other animals that lived in this part of the world...