Woolly Mammoths - Mammuthus Primigenius


The appearance and behavior of this species are among the best studied of any prehistoric animal because of the discovery of frozen carcasses in Siberia and Alaska, as well as skeletons, teeth, stomach contents, dung, and depiction from life in prehistoric cave paintings. Mammoth remains had long been known in Asia before they became known to Europeans in the 17th century. The origin of these remains was long a matter of debate, and often explained as being remains of legendary creatures. The mammoth was identified as an extinct species of elephant by Georges Cuvier in 1796.

The woolly mammoth was roughly the same size as modern African elephants. Males reached shoulder heights between 2.7 and 3.4 m (9 and 11 ft) and weighed up to 6 tonnes (6.6 short tons). Females averaged 2.6Ð2.9 metres (8.5Ð9.5 ft) in height and weighed up to 4 tons (4.4 short tons). A newborn calf weighed about 90 kilograms (200 lb). The woolly mammoth was well adapted to the cold environment during the last ice age. It was covered in fur, with an outer covering of long guard hairs and a shorter undercoat. The color of the coat varied from dark to light. The ears and tail were short to minimize frostbite and heat loss. It had long, curved tusks and four molars, which were replaced six times during the lifetime of an individual. Its behavior was similar to that of modern elephants, and it used its tusks and trunk for manipulating objects, fighting, and foraging. The diet of the woolly mammoth was mainly grass and sedges. Individuals could probably reach the age of 60. Its habitat was the mammoth steppe, which stretched across northern Eurasia and North America.

The woolly mammoth coexisted with early humans, who used its bones and tusks for making art, tools, and dwellings, and the species was also hunted for food. It disappeared from its mainland range at the end of the Pleistocene 10,000 years ago, most likely through climate change and consequent shrinkage of its habitat, hunting by humans, or a combination of the two. Isolated populations survived on St. Paul Island until 6,400 years ago and Wrangel Island until 4,000 years ago. After its extinction, humans continued using its ivory as a raw material, a tradition that continues today. It has been proposed the species could be recreated through cloning, but this method is as yet infeasible because of the degraded state of the remaining genetic material. Read more




In the News ...





Woolly mammoth de-extinction inches closer after elephant stem cell breakthrough   Live Science - March 7, 2024
Scientists at the company Colossal Biosciences have derived induced pluripotent stem cells from elephants, which they say could boost efforts to resurrect woolly mammoths. iPSCs also open a path to creating elephant sperm and egg cells, which are essential for mammoth de-extinction, in the lab. With fewer than 52,000 Asian elephants left in the wild.




Tusk Tells The Tale Of Huge Journey Made By A Woolly Mammoth 14,000 Years Ago   IFL Science - January 18, 2024

Using little more than a tusk, scientists have pieced together the lifetime travels of a single woolly mammoth that wandered North America more than 14,000 years ago. Starting life in the western Yukon, the mammoth traveled hundreds of kilometers through northwestern Canada before arriving at her final resting place, an early human settlement in present-day Alaska. It seems thereÕs little doubt that this venturing mammoth was slaughtered by a hungry group of hunter-gatherers.




Perfectly Frozen Baby Woolly Mammoths Reveal Secrets Of Prehistoric Pachyderms. Lyuba and Khroma lived over 40,000 years ago, but are still making an impact today.   IFL Science - November 4, 2023

For millions of years, woolly mammoths roamed across Europe and Asia, even for a while after humans came along. Whilst we no longer live alongside them - although some are seeking to change that - it turns out thereÕs still plenty we can learn about these hairy giants, thanks to some remarkably well-preserved baby woollies.




1.2-Million-Year-Old DNA Extracted From Mammoth Tooth Buried In Siberian Permafrost   IFL Science - July 25, 2023

In 2021, ancient DNA was recovered from a 1.2-million-year-old mammoth tooth Ð the oldest DNA that had ever been recovered at the time. Not only did this incredible feat push the boundaries of what scientific methods are capable of, but the project also revealed a new lineage in the mammoth family.




Ancient DNA Sheds Light on Wooly Mammoth Evolution, And They Weren't Always So Fluffy   Science Alert - April 19, 2023

As wooly mammoths grazed frigid Siberian steppes for more than half a million years, they evolved increasingly fluffy fur, large fat deposits, and smaller ears, according to a new study. By comparing the genomes of modern elephants with those of multiple wooly mammoths - including individual mammoths that lived 600,000 years apart - researchers gained new insight into the evolution of these ice-age icons. Distinctive features like fluffy fur and fat deposits were already genetically encoded in early wooly mammoths, the study found, but these and other characteristics seem to have grown more pronounced as the mammoths adapted to Siberia over hundreds of millennia.




A 'near complete' mummified baby woolly mammoth was discovered in a Canadian gold field   CNN - June 26, 2022
They were looking for gold in the permafrost of Canada's Klondike. Instead, they discovered what Canadian experts say is the most complete mummified woolly mammoth found in North America.




Ice age mammoth, woolly rhino and hyena bones uncovered in English town   Live Science - February 9, 2022
=The bones of a woolly mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, hyena and wolf recently discovered in an English town are thought to date to the last Ice Age. The animal remains turned up during the construction of a new town called Sherford, which is located in Devon county, near Plymouth, BBC News reported (opens in new tab). Construction on the 5,500-home town began in 2015, and the developers called in archaeologists to help with the project from the outset.




Ice age mammoth, woolly rhino and hyena bones uncovered in English town   Live Science - February 9, 2022
The bones of a woolly mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, hyena and wolf recently discovered in an English town are thought to date to the last Ice Age. The animal remains turned up during the construction of a new town called Sherford, which is located in Devon county, near Plymouth, BBC News reported. Construction on the 5,500-home town began in 2015, and the developers called in archaeologists to help with the project from the outset. While excavating a cave in the area, the team discovered the tusk, molar tooth and other bones of a woolly mammoth, as well as the incomplete skull and lower jaw of a woolly rhinoceros




Study takes unprecedented peek into life of 17,000-year-old mammoth   PhysOrg - August 13, 2021
An international research team has retraced the astonishing lifetime journey of an Arctic woolly mammoth, which covered enough of the Alaska landscape during its 28 years to almost circle the Earth twice. Scientists gathered unprecedented details of its life through analysis of a 17,000-year-old fossil from the University of Alaska Museum of the North. By generating and studying isotopic data in the mammoth's tusk, they were able to match its movements and diet with isotopic maps of the region.




An Ancient Woolly Mammoth Trekked So Far, It Could Have Circled The Globe Twice   Science Alert - August 13, 2021
Glacial melts have defrosted incredibly well preserved specimens, with their DNA giving us new perspectives on their extinction. But as mammoths are 4,000 years long gone, many mysteries remain about how they lived their daily lives. Scientists have now analyzed chemical isotopes in the remains of one such creature, mapping out its biography as it wandered the Arctic fringe. Today, the lands known as Beringia are made up of Siberian tundra, Alaskan ice, or the seafloor between the ocean that separates the continents. When the beast in this latest study walked the land at the end of the Pleistocene, more than 17,000 years ago, the range was a vast landscape of grasslands that offered a refuge from the worst of the icy climate. The studied remains - a 1.7-meter-long tusk - did not disappoint. The mammoth, revealed to be male via an analysis of genetic material in the tusk, appears to have spent its entire life adventuring across the tundra, traveling far enough to have almost circled Earth twice during its 28 years of life.




Remains of a 10ft tall Woolly mammoth so well preserved it had pieces of soft tissue and skin attached to its bones is discovered in the silt of a Siberian lake 10,000 years after it died   Daily Mail - August 4, 2020
A stunningly well preserved 10ft tall wooly mammoth has been found with pieces of soft tissue and skin attached to its bones in a Siberian lake by researchers. Experts from the Scientific Centre for Arctic studies have been working on studying the 10,000 year old remains of the giant mammal that was found in silt deposits. Scientists behind the discovery also announced they have found the giant extinct beast's fossilized excrement which will be analysed to understand the woolly mammoth's diet.




The last woolly mammoths lived on Wrangel Island in the Arctic Ocean; they died out 4,000 years ago within a very short time   Science Daily - October 7, 2019
The researchers believe a combination of isolated habitat and extreme weather events, and even the spread of prehistoric man may have sealed the ancient giants' fate.




Ancient weapons 'factory' where shards of mammoth tusks were of sharpened into spears and knives 10,000 years ago is found in Siberia   Daily Mail - June 24, 2019
An ancient weapons 'factory' dating back 10,000 years has been discovered right beside the remains of a felled woolly mammoth, paleontologists say. Prehistoric people used the site in Siberia to carve off ivory slivers from the two tusks of the hairy beast to use in spears and butchering tools, scientists believe. The mammoth remains, preserved in permafrost, were found this summer on Kotelny Island, part of the New Siberian archipelago in the Russian Arctic. Ironically the Kremlin's modern-day weaponry is now arriving on the same island, as Vladimir Putin builds a major Arctic military base called the Northern Shamrock near the site.




50,000-Year-Old Tiara Made from Woolly Mammoth Ivory Found in Denisova Cave   Live Science - December 14, 2018
Archaeologists recently discovered the remains of an ancient tiara that was worn by a man. The question now is whether the head crown was meant to mark its wearer's royalty - or simply hold back his hair. The ivory tiara turned up this summer in the Denisova Cave in the Altai mountains of Siberia. The artifact, made from the tusks of the now-extinct woolly mammoth, is between 35,000 and 50,000 years old - likely the oldest one found in the North Eurasia area to date. The findings, first reported by The Siberian Times, haven't yet been published in a scientific journal, but the authors plan to submit their report for publication next year.




Ancient Elephants And Mastodons Were Totally Down With Inter-Species Boning   Gizmodo - February 26, 2018
New research published this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows that ancient elephants were very much the product of interbreeding between species. Elephants - both those from the ancient past and those living today - were shaped by this mating practice, but it isn't something the two remaining species of elephants are into any more. Interbreeding among closely related mammalian species is fairly common. Good examples today are brown bears and polar bears, Sumatran and Bornean orangutans, and Eurasian gold jackals and grey wolves. Evolution does a pretty good job of creating advantageous new traits using the powers of random mutation, but there's nothing quite like interbreeding, where the traits from two different species get intermixed. And in fact, our ancient ancestors were into the whole interbreeding thing, too, with anatomically modern humans getting it on with Neanderthals and Denisovans. So in a way, we're also a kind of hybrid species.




Ice Age mammoths looked out for their elderly: Fossilized footprints reveal how a wounded adult was helped along by younger members of the family 43,000 years ago   Daily Mail - February 13, 2018
Mammoth footprints from 43,000 years ago suggest that the huge beasts took care of their elderly. The 117 tracks, found in Lake County, Oregon, belong to a Colombian mammoth family that roamed the area during the Ice Age. A set of 20 of the tracks intrigued scientists because they were especially close together and deeper on one side. They believe the deep prints belong to a limping elderly mammoth who was helped along on their journey by the younger mammoths in the group.




Ancient trail of Columbian mammoths uncovered in south-central Oregon   PhysOrg - February 12, 2018




DNA clues to why woolly mammoth died out   BBC - March 3, 2017
The last woolly mammoths to walk the Earth were so wracked with genetic disease that they lost their sense of smell, shunned company, and had a strange shiny coat. That's the verdict of scientists who have analyzed ancient DNA of the extinct animals for mutations. The studies suggest the last mammoths died out after their DNA became riddled with errors. The knowledge could inform conservation efforts for living animals. There are fewer than 100 Asiatic cheetahs left in the wild, while the remaining mountain gorilla population is estimated at about 300. The numbers are similar to those of the last woolly mammoths living on Wrangel Island in the Arctic Ocean around 4,000 years ago.




Last Alaskan woolly mammoths 'died of thirst'   BBC - August 2, 2016
One of the last known groups of woolly mammoths died out because of a lack of drinking water, scientists believe. The Ice Age beasts were living on a remote island off the coast of Alaska, and scientists have dated their demise to about 5,600 years ago.




The smoking gun 'proving ancient man killed woolly mammoth 45,000 years ago'   Ancient Origins - June 1, 2016
When Science journal earlier this year highlighted an ancient woolly mammoth with suspected spear wounds it provoked media interest around the world. Until now, the pictures of the remarkable prehistoric 'injuries' were not widely seen outside academic circles. Today The Siberian Times is publishing the images which respected Russian scientists believe is clear proof of ancient man's attacks on a creature preserved in the permafrost. If true, the implications are enormous. It would mean, firstly, that man was present in the frozen Arctic wastes a full 10,000 years earlier than previously understood. Yet it would also establish that early Siberians were just 2,895 miles (4,660 kilometres) from what was then a land bridge between modern Russia and Alaska. A long distance, for sure, but far from insurmountable, opening the possibility that Stone Age Siberians colonized the Americas at this early point.




Domestication of dogs may explain mammoth kill sites and success of early modern humans   Science Daily - May 30, 2014
A new analysis of European archaeological sites containing large numbers of dead mammoths and dwellings built with mammoth bones has led to a new interpretation of these sites -- that their abrupt appearance may have been due to early modern humans working with the earliest domesticated dogs to kill the now-extinct mammoth.




Neck ribs in woolly mammoths provide clues about their decline and eventual extinction   PhysOrg - March 25, 2014
Mammals, even the long-necked giraffes and the short-necked dolphins, almost always have seven neck vertebrae (exceptions being sloths, manatees and dugongs), and these vertebrae do not normally possess a rib. Therefore, the presence of a 'cervical rib' (a rib attached to a cervical vertebra) is an unusual event, and is cause for further investigation. A cervical rib itself is relatively harmless, but its development often follows genetic or environmental disturbances during early embryonic development. As a result, cervical ribs in most mammals are strongly associated with stillbirths and multiple congenital abnormalities that negatively impact the lifespan of an individual.




Mini-mammoths lived on Crete: scientists   PhysOrg - May 9, 2012
'The enamel rings on the Cretan tooth fossil had 3 character features that resembled mammoths, the genus Mammuthus, and, importantly, not the straight-tusked elephant Palaeoloxodon,' says Herridge.




Smallest mammoths found on Crete   BBC - May 9, 2012
The smallest mammoth ever known to have existed roamed the island of Crete millions of years ago, researchers say. Adults were roughly the size of a modern baby elephant, standing over a metre tall at the shoulders. Remains were discovered more than a century ago, but scientists had debated whether the animal was a mammoth or an ancient elephant.




Being Good Moms Couldn't Save the Woolly Mammoth   Science Daily - December 22, 2010
New research from The University of Western Ontario leads investigators to believe that woolly mammoths living north of the Arctic Circle during the Pleistocene Epoch (approx. 150,000 to 40,000 years ago) began weaning infants up to three years later than modern day African elephants due to prolonged hours of darkness. This adapted nursing pattern could have contributed to the prehistoric elephant's eventual extinction.




Climate Change Wiped Out Woolly Mammoths, Saber-Toothed Cats   Live Science - May 24, 2010
Mighty swings in climate played a major role in causing mass extinctions of mammals, such as woolly mammoths and saber-toothed cats, in the last 50,000 years, researchers now suggest. Between 50,000 and 3,000 years ago, 65 percent of mammal species weighing over 97 pounds (44 kg) went extinct, together with a lesser fraction of small mammals.




How Woolly Mammoths Survived Arctic Cold   Live Science - May 4, 2010
The lumbering, shaggy-haired woolly mammoth once thrived in the frigid Arctic plains despite having originally migrated from a more tropical climate. A new study has found tiny genetic mutations that changed the way oxygen was delivered by its blood could be responsible for its tolerance to the cold climate. The woolly mammoth was an elephantid species and most closely related to today's Asian elephants. It went extinct around 10,000 years ago. But because the mammoth lived in the Arctic, many remains of the species have been found preserved in the permafrost. Ancestors of both the mammoth and Asian elephant originated in Africa around 6.7 million to 7 million years ago and stayed for about 4 million years before moving up into Southern Europe and then farther up into what is now Siberia and the northern plains of Canada around a million years later.




Mammoths had 'anti-freeze blood', gene study finds   BBC - May 3, 2010
Scientists have discovered genetic mutations that allowed woolly mammoths to survive freezing temperatures. Nature Genetics reports that scientists "resurrected" a mammoth blood protein to come to their finding. This protein, known as hemoglobin, is found in red blood cells, where it binds to and carries oxygen. The team found that mammoths possessed a genetic adaptation allowing their hemoglobin to release oxygen into the body even at low temperatures. The ability of hemoglobin to release oxygen to the body's tissues is generally inhibited by the cold.




Mammoths Were Alive More Recently Than Thought   Live Science - December 16, 2009
Woolly mammoths and other large beasts in North America may not have gone extinct as long ago as previously thought. The new view that pockets of beasts survived to as recently as 7,600 years ago, rather than the previous end times mark of 12,000 years ago is supported by DNA evidence found in a few pinches of dirt. After plucking ancient DNA from frozen soil in central Alaska, researchers uncovered "genetic fossils" of both mammoths and horses locked in permafrost samples dated to between 10,500 and 7,600 years ago.




Mammoth dung unravels extinction   BBC - November 19, 2009
Mammoth dung has proved to be a source of prehistoric information, helping scientists unravel the mystery of what caused the great mammals to die out. An examination of a fungus that is found in the ancient dung and preserved in lake sediments has helped build a picture of what happened to the beasts. The study sheds light on the ecological consequences of the extinction and the role that humans may have played in it.




Climate Events Let Ice Age Mammoths Pass Far Below 40 Degrees North Latitude   Science Daily - October 27, 2009
Europe's southern-most skeletal remains of a mammoth were unearthed in a moor on the 37 degree N latitude. This is considerably south of the inhospitable habitat than one usually imagines for mammoths, and for the characteristically dry and cold climate that prevailed during the ice ages in the north of Eurasia.




Mammoths survived late in Britain   BBC - June 18, 2009
Woolly mammoths lived in Britain as recently as 14,000 years ago, according to new radiocarbon dating evidence. Dr Adrian Lister obtained new dates for mammoth bones unearthed in the English county of Shropshire in 1986. His study in the Geological Journal shows the great beasts remained part of Britain's wildlife for much longer than had previously been supposed. Mammoths may finally have died out when forests encroached on the grassland habitats they favored for grazing. The radiocarbon results from the adult male and four juvenile mammoths from Condover, Shropshire, reveal that the great beasts were in Britain more than 6,000 years longer than had previously been thought.




Mobile DNA elements in woolly mammoth genome give new clues to mammalian evolution   PhysOrg - June 8, 2009
The woolly mammoth died out several thousand years ago, but the genetic material they left behind is yielding new clues about the evolution of mammals. In a study published online in Genome Research, scientists have analyzed the mammoth genome looking for mobile DNA elements, revealing new insights into how some of these elements arose in mammals and shaped the genome of an animal headed for extinction.




A million-year-old mammoth skeleton found in Serbia: report   PhysOrg - June 3, 2009
A woman works on an exhibit at a mammoth show. A finely preserved skeleton of a mammoth, believed to be one million years old, was uncovered near an archaeological site in eastern Serbia. The skeleton was uncovered during ongoing excavations of the site at Viminacium, a Roman military settlement on the Danube river, said archaeologist Miomir Korac.




Mammoth Bones Found in San Diego   Live Science - February 5, 2009
The skull and other remains from an adult mammoth, a mega-mammal that went extinct in the last Ice Age, were unearthed this week at a construction site in downtown San Diego. The bones, including a tusk, skull and foot bones, belonged to an adult Columbian mammoth (Mammuthus columbi), according to The San Diego Union-Tribune. The mammoth's tusk was slightly more than 10 feet (3 meters) in length.




Mammoth's genome pieced together    BBC - November 20, 2008
A US-Russian team of researchers has pieced together most of the genome of a woolly mammoth, Nature journal reports. The experts extracted DNA from samples of mammoth hair to reconstruct the genetic sequence of this Ice Age beast. Though some stretches are missing, the researchers estimate that the genome is roughly 80% complete. The work could provide insights into the extinction of the mammoth and also resurrects questions about the viability of cloning long-dead species. The scientists were aided in their task by the fact that several deep-frozen carcasses of woolly mammoths have been dug out of the permafrost in Siberia. These conditions are ideal for the preservation of hair, which is a preferred source for the extraction of ancient DNA.




Mammoth Mystery: The Beasts' Final Years Live Science - September 4, 2008
Woolly mammoths' last stand before extinction in Siberia wasn't made by natives - rather, the beasts had American roots, researchers have discovered. Woolly mammoths once roamed the Earth for more than a half-million years, ranging from Europe to Asia to North America. These Ice Age giants vanished from mainland Siberia by 9,000 years ago, although mammoths survived on Wrangel Island in the Arctic Ocean until roughly 3,700 years ago.




Mammoths moved 'out of America' BBC - September 4, 2008
Scientists have discovered that the last Siberian woolly mammoths may have originated in North America. Their research in the journal Current Biology represents the largest study of ancient woolly mammoth DNA. The scientists also question the direct role of climate change in the eventual demise of these large beasts. They believe that woolly mammoths survived through the period when the ice sheets were at their maximum, while other Ice Age mammals "crashed out". The iconic Ice Age woolly mammoth - Mammuthus primigenius - roamed through mainland Eurasia and North America until about 10,000 years ago. Previous studies had hinted that the last mammoths left in Siberia were not natives - but immigrants from North America. However, more evidence was required to strengthen the case for this "out of America" theory.




France: Extremely 'Rare' mammoth skull discovered BBC - September 2, 2008
The "extremely rare" fossilized skull of a steppe mammoth has been unearthed in southern France. The discovery in the Auvergne region could shed much needed light on the evolution of these mighty beasts. Many isolated teeth of steppe mammoth have been found, but only a handful of skeletons exist; and in these surviving specimens, the skull is rarely intact. Palaeontologists Frederic Lacombat and Dick Mol describe this skull specimen as being well preserved. Mr Lacombat, from Crozatier Museum in nearby Le Puy-en-Velay, and Mr Mol, from the Museum of Natural History in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, said the fossil belongs to a male steppe mammoth (Mammuthus trogontherii) that stood about 3.7m (12ft) tall and lived about 400,000 years ago, during Middle Pleistocene times.




Woolly Mammoth Gene Study Changes Extinction Theory Science Daily - June 12, 2008
A large genetic study of the extinct woolly mammoth has revealed that the species was not one large homogenous group, as scientists previously had assumed, and that it did not have much genetic diversity. The discovery is particularly interesting because it rules out human hunting as a contributing factor, leaving climate change and disease as the most probable causes of extinction.




Mammoth hair produces DNA bounty BBC - September 28, 2007
A rapid technique for isolating DNA in hair has yielded a mass of new information about woolly mammoths. An international research team says the process should work on other extinct animals, allowing their genetics to be studied in detail for the first time. The mammoth DNA was taken from the hair shaft which was long thought to be a poor source for the "life molecule". But the group tells Science magazine that the shaft's keratin material slows degradation and limits contamination.




Gene reveals mammoth coat color BBC - July 6, 2006
The coat color of mammoths that roamed the Earth thousands of years ago has been determined by scientists. Some of the curly tusked animals would have sported dark brown coats, while others had pale ginger or blond hair. The information was extracted from a 43,000-year-old woolly mammoth bone from Siberia using the latest genetic techniques. Writing in the journal Science, the researchers said a gene called Mc1r was controlling the beasts' coat colors. This gene is responsible for hair-color in some modern mammals, too. In humans, reduced activity of the Mc1r gene causes red hair, while in dogs, mice and horses it results in yellow hair.




Complete mammoth skeleton found in Siberia BBC - May 23, 2006
Fishermen in Siberia have discovered the complete skeleton of a mammoth - a find which Russian experts have described as very rare. The remains appeared when flood waters receded in Russia's Krasnoyarsk region. The mammoth's backbone, skull, teeth and tusks all survived intact. It appears to have died aged about 50. Mammoths lived in Africa, Europe, Asia and North America between about 1.6 million years ago and 10,000 years ago, during the Pleistocene epoch. Alexander Kerzhayev, deputy director of the museum in the small town of Novoselovo, says it is the most significant find he can remember.




Scientists Sequence Complete Genome of Woolly Mammoth BBC - February 8, 2006
Scientists have completed the oldest mitochondrial genome sequence from the 33,000-year-old remains of a woolly mammoth; results show mammoths and Asian elephants are a sister species that diverged soon a fter their common ancestor split from the lineage of the African elephant.




Complete mammoth skull unearthed in England BBC - January 20, 2004

A complete mammoth skull has been unearthed in southern England, only the second to be found in Britain. The specimen was discovered in a gravel pit in the Cotswolds and is estimated to be about 50,000 years old. The only other complete specimen found in the UK is displayed in the Natural History Museum in London. Scientists will attempt to date the mammoth skull using radiocarbon methods and will also use it to study the evolutionary history of mammoths. The skull was found on Sunday 11 January by Dr Neville Hollingworth, a palaeontologist who works at the Natural Environment Research Council, and Dr Mark O'Dell, of science firm QinetiQ.




When mammoths roamed England BBC - November 2, 2001
A clash of the mammoths could have taken place in what is now southern England thousands of years ago. Fossils found in Buckinghamshire and Norfolk suggest that two types of mammoth lived side-by-side in prehistoric times. Scientists believe herds of more advanced mammoths moving south from Siberia encountered primitive European ones. The newcomers were better adapted to a cold climate and eventually outbred their contemporaries. But the European mammoths might have interbred with the Siberian invaders, leaving their mark in the gene pool.







Mastodon

Mastodons or Mastodonts (meaning "nipple-teeth") are members of the extinct genus Mammut of the order Proboscidea and form the family Mammutidae; they resembled, but were distinct from, the woolly mammoth which belongs to the family Elephantidae. Mastodons were browsers and mammoths were grazers.

The American mastodon (Mammut americanum) lived in North America. Mastodons are thought to have first appeared almost four million years ago and became extinct about 10,000 years ago, at the same time as most other Pleistocene megafauna. Though their habitat spanned a large territory, mastodons were most common in the Ice age spruce forests of the eastern United States, as well as in warmer lowland environments.

Their remains have been found as far as 300 kilometers offshore in the northeastern United States, in areas that were dry land during the low sea level stand of the last ice age. There have been, however, findings of mastodon fossils in South America and also on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington state. Mastodon fossils have been found in Stewiack, Nova Scotia, Canada, and also were discovered north of Fort Wayne, Indiana, resulting in the "Mastodons" being chosen as the mascot for athletic teams at Indiana-Purdue University at Fort Wayne (IPFW) by the students. The uncovered fossils are displayed inside Kettler Hall on the IPFW campus.

While mastodons were furry like woolly mammoths, and similar in height at roughly three meters at the shoulder, the resemblance was superficial. They differed from mammoths primarily in the blunt, conical shape of their teeth, which were more suited to chewing leaves than the high-crowned teeth mammoths used for grazing; the name mastodon means mastoid teeth, and is also an obsolete name for their genus. Their skulls were larger and flatter than those of mammoths, while their skeleton was stockier and more robust.

Mastodons also seem to have lacked the undercoat characteristic of mammoths. The tusks of the mastodon sometimes exceeded five meters in length, and were nearly horizontal, in contrast with the more curved mammoth tusks. Young males had vestigial lower tusks that were lost in adulthood. The tusks were probably used to break branches and twigs although some evidence suggests males may have used them in mating challenges; one tusk is often shorter than the other, suggesting that, like humans, mastodons may have had laterality.

Examination of fossilized tusks revealed a series of regularly spaced shallow pits on the underside of the tusks. Microscopic examination showed damage to the dentin under the pits. It is theorized that the damage was caused when the males were fighting over mating rights. The curved shape of the tusks would have forced them downward with each blow, causing damage to the newly forming ivory at the base of the tusk. The regularity of the damage in the growth patterns of the tusks indicates that this was an annual occurrence, probably occurring during the spring and early summer.

The meat of mastodons was a food source for early humans. Archaeologists are still trying to determine what role, if any, the early human settlers of North America played in the extinction of the mastodon. Recent studies by scientists in Ohio and New York concluded that tuberculosis may have been partly responsible for the extinction of the Mastodon 10,000 years ago. Read more ...


Stegomastodon Skull Unearthed   Live Science - June 19, 2014
Elephant Butte Lake State Park in New Mexico is named for an elephant-shaped hill on the north side of the park, but now the name seems even more appropriate after a bachelor party hiking there discovered a 3-million-year-old stegomastodon skull - the prehistoric ancestor of mammoths and elephants. Members of the bachelor party noticed a bone sticking a couple inches out of the sand by the Rio Grande River earlier this month, the Telegraph reported. The men dug up what turned out to be an enormous skull and sent photos to the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science. Paleontologists who arrived on the scene identified the remains as a stegomastodon skull.


Greek mastodon find 'spectacular' BBC - July 24, 2007
The remains of a prehistoric mastodon - a mammoth-like animal - have been found in northern Greece, including intact long tusks. A Dutch scientist at the site, Dick Mol, says the find near Grevena should help explain why mastodons died out in Europe two to three million years ago.




PALEONTOLOGY INDEX


WOOLY RHINO


ICE INDEX


ANTARCTICA


ARTIC


THEORY OF CRUSTAL DISPLACEMENT


PHYSICAL SCIENCES INDEX


PLANET EARTH INDEX



ALPHABETICAL INDEX


CRYSTALINKS HOME PAGE


PSYCHIC READING WITH ELLIE


BOOK: THE ALCHEMY OF TIME


DONATION TO CRYSTALINKS


ADVERTISE ON CRYSTALINKS