Woolly mammoth Fossil range: Late Pleistocene to Late Holocene
Conservation status
Extinct  (c. The Pleistocene ('plaɪstəsin is the epoch from 18 million to 10000 years BP covering the world's recent period The Holocene is a Geological epoch which began approximately 10000 years ago (about 8000 BC The conservation status of a Species is an indicator of the likelihood of that species remaining extant either in the present day or the near future In Biology and Ecology, extinction is the cessation of existence of a Species or group of taxa. 1700 BC)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Mammalia Order: Proboscidea Family: Elephantidae Genus: Mammuthus Species: M. Chordates ( Phylum Chordata) are a group of Animals that includes the Vertebrates together with several closely related Invertebrates Mammals ( class Mammalia) are a class of Vertebrate Animals characterized by the presence of Sweat glands, including sweat glands Proboscidea is an order containing only one family of living animals Elephantidae the Elephants with three living Species ( African Bush Elephants ( family: Elephantidae) are large land Mammals of the order Proboscidea. A mammoth is any Species of the Extinct Genus Mammuthus. These Proboscideans are members of the elephant family and primigenius
Binomial name
Mammuthus primigenius Blumenbach, 1799

The woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius), also called the tundra mammoth, is an extinct species of mammoth. Johann Friedrich Blumenbach ( May 11, 1752 – January 22, 1840) was a German doctor and Physiologist, A mammoth is any Species of the Extinct Genus Mammuthus. These Proboscideans are members of the elephant family and This animal is known from bones and frozen carcasses from northern North America and northern Eurasia with the best preserved carcasses in Siberia. For the superstate in George Orwell 's novel see Nations of Nineteen Eighty-Four. Siberia (Сиби́рь Sibir) is the name given to the vast region constituting almost all of Northern Asia and for the most part currently serving

This mammoth species was first recorded in (possibly 150,000 years old) deposits of the second last glaciation in Eurasia. For the superstate in George Orwell 's novel see Nations of Nineteen Eighty-Four. They were derived from steppe mammoths (Mammuthus trogontherii). The steppe mammoth, Mammuthus trogontherii, is an extinct species of Elephant, that ranged over most of northern Eurasia during the Middle Pleistocene ^[1]

It disappeared from most of its range at the end of the Pleistocene, with a dwarfed race still living on Wrangel Island until roughly 1700 BC. The Pleistocene ('plaɪstəsin is the epoch from 18 million to 10000 years BP covering the world's recent period Wrangel Island (о́стров Вра́нгеля ostrov Vrangelya) is an Island in the Arctic Ocean, between the Chukchi Sea and East ^[2]

Adaptations

Skeleton

Woolly mammoths had a number of adaptations to the cold, most famously the thick layer of shaggy hair, up to 90 cm (35 in) long with a fine underwool, for which the woolly mammoth is named. A centimetre ( American spelling: centimeter, symbol cm) is a unit of Length in the Metric system, equal to one hundredth Inches redirects here To see the Les Savy Fav album see Inches. The coats were similar to those of Muskoxen and it is likely Mammoths moulted in summer. The muskox ( Ovibos moschatus) is an Arctic Mammal of the Bovidae family noted for its thick coat and for the strong odor emitted by males They also had far smaller ears than modern elephants; the largest mammoth ear found so far was only 30 cm (12 in) long, compared to 180 cm (71 in) for an African elephant. African elephants are the species of Elephants in the Genus Loxodonta, one of the two existing genera in Elephantidae. Other characteristic features included a high, peaked head that appears knob-like in many cave paintings and a high shoulder hump resulting from long spines on the neck vertebrae that probably carried fat deposits. Another feature at times found in cave paintings was confirmed by the discovery of the nearly intact remains of a baby Mammoth named "Dima". Unlike the trunk lobes of living elephants, Dima's upper lip at the tip of the trunk had a broad lobe feature, while the lower lip had a broad, squarish flap.

Their teeth were also adapted to their diet of coarse tundra grasses, with more plates and a higher crown than their southern relatives. Their skin was no thicker than that of present-day elephants, but unlike elephants they had numerous sebaceous glands in their skin which secreted greasy fat into their hair, improving its insulating qualities. The sebaceous glands are Glands found in the Skin of Mammals Locations and morphology A branched type of Acinar gland, these They had a layer of fat up to 8 cm (3. 1 in) thick under the skin which, like the blubber of whales, helped to keep them warm. Blubber is a thick layer of vascularized Fat found under the skin of all Cetaceans Pinnipeds and Sirenians Description Whales are marine mammals which are neither Dolphins (ie members of the families Delphinidae or Platanistoidae) nor Porpoises Orcas

Reconstruction

Woolly mammoths had extremely long tusks — up to 5 m (16 ft) long — which were markedly curved, to a much greater extent than those of elephants. It is not clear whether the tusks were a specific adaptation to their environment, but it has been suggested that mammoths may have used their tusks as shovels to clear snow from the ground and reach the vegetation buried below. This is evidenced by flat sections on the ventral surface of some tusks. It has also been observed in many specimens that there may be an amount of wear on top of the tusk that would suggests some animals had a preference as to which tusk it rested its trunk on.

Extinction

Until recently it was generally assumed, that the last woolly mammoths vanished from Europe and Southern Siberia about 10. 000 BC, but new findings show, that some were still present here about 8. 000 BC. Only slightly later the wooly mammoths also dissapeared from continental Northern Siberia. ^[3]. Woolly mammoths as well as columbian mammoths dissapeared also from the North American continent at the end of the ice age. A small population of woolly mammoths survived on St. Paul Island, Alaska, up until 6000 BC,^[4] while another remained on Wrangel Island, located in the Arctic Ocean, up until 1700 BC. Saint Paul Island is one of the Pribilof Islands, a group of four volcanic islands located in the Bering Sea off the coast of Alaska. Wrangel Island (о́стров Вра́нгеля ostrov Vrangelya) is an Island in the Arctic Ocean, between the Chukchi Sea and East The Arctic Ocean, located in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Arctic north polar region is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major Possibly due to their limited food supply, these animals were a dwarf variety, thus much smaller than the original Pleistocene woolly mammoth. Dwarf elephants are prehistoric members of the order Proboscidea, that through the process of Allopatric speciation, evolved to a fraction of the size of their ^[5] However, the Wrangel Island mammoths should not be confused with the Channel Islands Pygmy Mammoth, Mammuthus exilis, which was a different species. The Pygmy or Channel Islands Mammoth ( Mammuthus exilis) is an Extinct Species of Dwarf elephant descended from the

Most woolly mammoths died out at the end of the Pleistocene, as a result of climate change and a shift in man's hunting patterns. The Pleistocene ('plaɪstəsin is the epoch from 18 million to 10000 years BP covering the world's recent period A recent study conducted by the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales in Spain determined that warming temperatures had reduced mammoth habitat to only a fraction of what it once was, putting the woolly mammoth population in sharp decline before the introduction of humans into the territory. The Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales de España is the National Museum of Natural History of Spain. ^[6] Glacial retreat shrunk mammoth habitat from 7,700,000 km² (2,970,000 sq mi) 42,000 years ago to 800,000 km² (310,000 sq mi) 6,000 years ago. Square Kilometre ( US spelling square kilometer) symbol km2, is a decimal multiple of the SI unit of The square mile is an imperial and US unit of Area equal the area of a square of one statute mile. Although a similarly drastic loss of habitat occurred at the end of the Saale glaciation 125,000 years ago, human pressure during the later warming period was sufficient to push the mammoth over the brink. ^[7] The study employed the use of climate models and fossil remains to make these determinations. ^[6]

The Earth today has no environment similar to the habitat that sustained Mammoths. In 1989 the North East science station at Cherskii in Russia began a project to recreate the steppe grassland habitat of the Pleistocene through the introduction of Yakutian horses, Bison and other steppe species. Year 1989 ( MCMLXXXIX) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link displays 1989 Gregorian calendar) Russia (Россия Rossiya) or the Russian Federation ( Rossiyskaya Federatsiya) is a transcontinental Country extending This is an article about an animal For other uses see Bison (disambiguation. Additional to other research planned, scientists hope to clone woolly mammoths, and then re-introduce them to what is now called Pleistocene Park. Pleistocene Park in the Sakha Republic in northern Siberia is an attempt by Russian researcher Sergey Zimov to reproduce the Ecosystem

Frozen Remains

The preserved baby woolly mammoth named Dima (Lucerne, Switzerland). Lucerne ( Italian Lucerna) is a city in Switzerland. It is the capital of the Canton of Lucerne Switzerland (English pronunciation; Schweiz Swiss German: Schwyz or Schwiiz Suisse Svizzera Svizra officially the Swiss Confederation

One-of-a-kind stuffed mammoth in The Museum of Zoology, St. Petersburg, found in the banks of the Berezovka River

The wooly mammoth is a common member in the fossil record, but unlike many others are often not actually converted to stone, but are actually preserved since their deaths. Saint Petersburg ( tr: Sankt-Peterburg,) is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River This is in part because of their massive size and partially because of the persistence of the frozen climate in which they had lived and, therefore, died. The very first mammoth fossil fully documented by modern science, the Adams mammoth, was of this type, but had been allowed to largely decay before its recovery, possibly even having been partially devoured by modern wolves. The Adams mammoth is the name given to the first full Woolly mammoth, species Mammuthus primigenius, skeleton to be documented in the history of modern ^[8]

Preserved frozen remains of woolly mammoths, with much soft tissue remaining, have been found in the northern parts of Siberia. In Medicine, the term soft tissue refers to tissues that connect support or surround other structures and organs of the body Siberia (Сиби́рь Sibir) is the name given to the vast region constituting almost all of Northern Asia and for the most part currently serving This is a rare occurrence, essentially requiring the animal to have been buried rapidly in liquid or semi-solids such as silt, mud and icy water which then froze. This may have occurred in a number of ways. Mammoths may have been trapped in bogs or quicksands and either died of starvation or exposure, or drowning if they sank under the surface. Though judging by the evidence of undigested food in the stomach and seed pods still in the mouth of many of the specimens, neither starvation nor exposure seem likely. The maturity of this ingested vegetation places the time period in autumn rather than in spring when flowers would be expected. ^[9] The animals may have fallen through frozen ice into small ponds or potholes, entombing them. Many are certainly known to have been killed in rivers, perhaps through being swept away by river floods. In one location, by the Berelekh River in Yakutia in Siberia, more than 9,000 bones from at least 156 individual mammoths have been found in a single spot, apparently having been swept there by the current. The Sakha Republic (Yakutia (Респу́блика Саха́ (Яку́тия Саха Республиката is a federal subject of Russia (a Republic

In 1977, the well-preserved carcass of a 7- to 8-month old baby woolly mammoth, named "Dima", was discovered. Also 1977 (album by Ash. Year 1977 ( MCMLXXVII) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays This carcass was recovered from permafrost on a tributary of the Kolyma River in northeastern Siberia. This article is about frozen ground For other meanings see Permafrost (disambiguation. The Kolyma River (Колыма́ is a river in northeastern Siberia, whose basin covers parts of the Sakha Republic, Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, and This baby woolly mammoth weighed approximately 100 kg (220 lb) at death and was 104 cm (41 in) high and 115 cm (45 in) long. The pound or pound-mass (abbreviation lb, lbm, or sometimes in the United States #) is a unit of Mass Radiocarbon dating determined that Dima died about 40,000 years ago. Its internal organs are similar to those of living elephants, but its ears are only one-tenth the size of those of an African elephant of similar age. ^[1]

In the summer of 1997, a Dolgan family named Jarkov discovered a piece of mammoth tusk protruding from the tundra of the Taymyr Peninsula in Siberia, Russia. Year 1997 ( MCMXCVII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1997 Gregorian calendar Dolgans (долганы self-designation долган тыа-кихи саха are a Turkic -speaking people who mostly inhabit Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia Taymyr Peninsula (Полуостров Таймыр Таймырский полуостров is a peninsula in Siberia that forms the most northern part of mainland Asia Siberia (Сиби́рь Sibir) is the name given to the vast region constituting almost all of Northern Asia and for the most part currently serving Russia (Россия Rossiya) or the Russian Federation ( Rossiyskaya Federatsiya) is a transcontinental Country extending In September/October 1999 this 20,380-year-old carcass and the surrounding sediment were flown to an ice cave in Khatanga, Taymyr Autonomous Okrug. Year 1999 ( MCMXCIX) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1999 Gregorian calendar) Khatanga (Хатанга is a village ( selo) in the Taymyr Peninsula, in Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia, located on Taymyr Autonomous Okrug (Таймы́рский автоно́мный о́круг Taymyrsky avtonomny okrug) or Taymyria, was a federal subject In October 2000, the careful defrosting operations in this cave began with the use of hairdryers to keep the hair and other soft tissues intact. A blowdryer or hairdryer is an Electromechanical device designed to blow cool or hot Air over wet or damp Hair, in order to accelerate the ^[10][11]

To date, thirty-nine preserved bodies have been found, but only four of them are complete. In most cases the flesh shows signs of decay before its freezing and later desiccation. Stories abound about frozen mammoth carcasses that were still edible once defrosted, but the original sources indicate that the carcasses were in fact terribly decayed, and the stench so unbearable that only the dogs accompanying the finders showed any interest in the flesh. ^[12]

In addition to frozen carcasses, large amounts of mammoth ivory have been found in Siberia. Ivory is formed from Dentine and constitutes the bulk of the Teeth and Tusks of animals such as the Elephant, Hippopotamus, Mammoth tusks have been articles of trade for at least 2,000 years. They have been and are still a highly prized commodity. Güyük, the 13th century Khan of the Mongols, is reputed to have sat on a throne made from mammoth ivory,^[13] and even today it is in great demand as a replacement for the now-banned export of elephant ivory. Güyük ( cyrillic:Гүюг хаан c. 1206–1248 was the third Great Khan of the Mongol Empire.

Ivory from the extinct Wooly Mammoth has been used in the fretboards of many PRS Guitars. PRS Guitars is an American guitar manufacturer based in Stevensville Maryland. The House of Staunton, purveyor of chess equipment, offers a gorgeous set made from Wooly Mammoth ivory.

Genetics

Since there is a known case in which an Asian elephant and an African elephant have produced a live (though sickly) offspring, it has been theorized that if mammoths were still alive today, they would be able to interbreed with Indian elephants. The Asian or Asiatic Elephant ( Elephas maximus) sometimes known by the name of one of its subspecies &ndash the Indian Elephant, is one of African elephants are the species of Elephants in the Genus Loxodonta, one of the two existing genera in Elephantidae. Motty ( 11 July, 1978, Chester Zoo, Cheshire - 23 July, 1978, Chester Zoo, Cheshire) was the only This has led to the idea that perhaps a mammoth-like beast could be recreated by taking genetic material from a frozen mammoth and combining it with that from a modern Indian elephant.

Section through an ivory tooth (tusk) of a mammoth

Scientists hope to retrieve the preserved reproductive organs of a frozen mammoth and revive its sperm cells. A spermatozoon or spermatozoan ( pl spermatozoa) from the Ancient Greek σπέρμα (seed and ζῷον (living being and more commonly known However, not enough genetic material has been found in frozen mammoths for this to be attempted. The complete mitochondrial genome sequence of Mammuthus primigenius has been determined, however. Mitochondrial DNA ( mtDNA) is the DNA located in Organelles called mitochondria. ^[14] The analysis demonstrates that the divergence of mammoth, African elephant, and Asian elephant occurred over a short time, and confirmed that the mammoth was more closely related to the Asian than to the African elephant. As an important landmark in this direction, in December 2005, a team of American, German, and UK researchers were able to assemble a complete mitochondrial DNA of the mammoth, which allowed them to trace the close evolutionary relationship between mammoths and the Asian elephant. African elephants branched away from the woolly mammoth around 6 million years ago, a moment in time close to that of the similar split between chimps and humans. Many researchers expect that the first fully sequenced nuclear genome of an extinct species will be that of the mammoth.

On July 6, 2006 it was reported that scientists extracted a mammal hair colour gene called Mc1r from a 43,000-year old woolly mammoth bone from Siberia. Events 1044 - The Battle of Ménfő takes place 1189 - Richard the Lionheart is crowned King of England Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. History See also History of genetics The existence of genes was first suggested by Gregor Mendel (1822-1884 who in the 1860s studied inheritance Siberia (Сиби́рь Sibir) is the name given to the vast region constituting almost all of Northern Asia and for the most part currently serving ^[15]

Cryptozoology

Head

There have been occasional claims that the woolly mammoth is not actually extinct, and that small isolated herds might survive in the vast and sparsely inhabited tundra of the northern hemisphere. In physical Geography, tundra is an area where the Tree growth is hindered by low temperatures and short growing seasons Northern Hemisphere is the half of a Planet that is North of the Equator —the word hemisphere literally means 'half ball' In the late nineteenth century, there were, according to Bengt Sjögren (1962), persistent rumours about surviving mammoths hiding in Alaska. Alaska ( Аляска Alyaska) is a state in the United States of America, in the northwest of the North American continent ^[16] In October 1899, a story about a man named Henry Tukeman detailed his having killed a mammoth in Alaska and that he subsequently donated the specimen to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. However, the museum denied the existence of any mammoth corpse and the story turned out to be a hoax. The Smithsonian Institution (smɪθsoʊnɪən is an educational and research institute and associated Museum complex administered and funded by the Government of Washington DC ( formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D ^[17] Sjögren (1962) believes the myth was started when the American biologist Charles Haskins Townsend traveled in Alaska, saw Eskimos trading mammoth tusks, asked if there still were living mammoths in Alaska and provided them with a drawing of the animal. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Charles Haskins Townsend ScD (1859-1944 was an American zoologist, born at Parnassus, Pennsylvania. Eskimos or Esquimaux are Indigenous peoples who have traditionally inhabited the circumpolar region from eastern Siberia ( Russia) across

In the 19th century, several reports of "large shaggy beasts" were passed on to the Russian authorities by Siberian tribesman, but no scientific proof ever surfaced. The Russian people (Русские— Russkie) are an East Slavic Ethnic group, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries Siberia (Сиби́рь Sibir) is the name given to the vast region constituting almost all of Northern Asia and for the most part currently serving A French charge d´affaires working in Vladivostok, M. This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. Vladivostok ( is Russia 's largest port city on the Pacific Ocean and the administrative center of Primorsky Krai. Gallon, claimed in 1946 that in 1920 he met a Russian fur-trapper that claimed to have seen living giant, furry "elephants" deep into the taiga. Elephants ( family: Elephantidae) are large land Mammals of the order Proboscidea. Taiga (ˈtaɪgə from Turkic or Mongolian) is a Biome characterized by Coniferous forests Gallon added that the fur-trapper didn't even know about mammoths before, and that he talked about the mammoths as a forest-animal at a time when they were seen as living on the tundra and snow. ^[16]

In legends

A mammoth possibly appears in an ancient legend of the Kaska tribe in British Columbia, The Bladder Headed Boy. The Kaska or Kaska Dena are a First Nations people living mainly in northern British Columbia and the southeastern Yukon in Canada British Columbia (ˌbrɪtɨʃ kəˈlʌmbiə ( BC) ( (la Colombie-Britannique C The story tells how the boy in the title killed the animal, and was rewarded by being made the first chief of his people. The animal is described as a "huge shaggy beast that roamed the land long ago," but is also said to steal meat and eat people, suggesting that the creature in the story could have become embellished over the years, or refers to some animal other than a mammoth. ^[18]

A traditional Inuit string figure is said to represent a large prehistoric beast, often identified with the mammoth. Inuit (plural the singular Inuk, means "man" or "person" is a general term for a group of culturally similar Indigenous peoples inhabiting A string figure is a Design formed by manipulating string on around and using one's Fingers or sometimes between the fingers of multiple people ^[19]

References

External links

• Has anybody ever eaten the meat of a frozen mammoth?, Stupid Question, February 14, 2005, by John Ruch.