Mammoth: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia

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{{two other uses|the genus Mammuthus|the species M. primigenius|Woolly Mammoth}}

{{Taxobox

| color = pink

| name = Mammoth

| fossil_range = [[Early Pliocene]] - [[Holocene]]

| image = ColumbianMammoth_CollegeOfEasternUtah.jpg

| image_width = 300px

| image_caption = [[Columbian Mammoth]]

| regnum = [[Animal]]ia

| phylum = [[Chordata]]

| classis = [[Mammal]]ia

| ordo = [[Proboscidea]]

| familia = [[Elephantidae]]

| genus = '''''Mammuthus'''''

| genus_authority = [[Joshua Brookes|Brookes]], [[1828]]

| subdivision_ranks = Species

| subdivision =

*''[[Mammuthus africanavus]]'' African mammoth

*''[[Mammuthus columbi]]'' Columbian mammoth

*''[[Mammuthus exilis]]'' Pygmy mammoth

*''[[Mammuthus imperator]]'' Imperial mammoth

*''[[Mammuthus jeffersonii]]'' Jeffersonian mammoth

*''[[Mammuthus trogontherii]]'' Steppe mammoth

*''[[Mammuthus meridionalis]]'' Southern mammoth

*''[[Mammuthus subplanifrons]]'' [[South Africa]]n mammoth

*''[[Mammuthus primigenius]]'' Woolly mammoth

*''[[Mammuthus lamarmorae]]'' Sardinian dwarf mammoth

}}

A '''mammoth''' is any [[species]] of the [[extinct]] [[genus]] ''Mammuthus''. These [[proboscidea]]ns ([[elephant]]s or their extinct relatives) were often equipped with long curved [[tusks]] and, in northern species, a covering of long [[hair]]. They lived from the [[Pliocene]] [[epoch (geology)|epoch]] from 4.8 million years ago to around 4,500 years ago.<ref>{{cite web

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| title =Woolly Mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius)

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| publisher =[[Academy of Natural Sciences]]

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| url =http://www.ansp.org/museum/jefferson/otherFossils/mammuthus.php#top

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| accessdate = 2007-07-20 }}</ref>

<ref name=livescience>{{cite web

| last =Schirber

| first =Michael

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| title =Surviving Extinction: Where Woolly Mammoths Endured

| work =Live Science

| publisher =[[Imaginova|Imaginova Cororporation]]

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| url =http://www.livescience.com/animals/041019_Mammoth_Island.html

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| accessdate = 2007-07-20 }}</ref> The word ''mammoth'' comes from the [[Russian language|Russian]] мамонт ''mamont'', probably in turn from the [[Mansi language|Vogul (Mansi) language]].<ref>''Oxford English Dictionary:Mammoth'' (2000).</ref>

==Evolutionary history==

Mammoth remains have been found in [[Europe]], [[Africa]], [[Asia]], and [[North America]]. They are believed to have originally evolved in [[North Africa]] about 4.8 million years ago, during the Pliocene, where bones of ''Mammuthus africanavus'' have been found in [[Chad]], [[Libya]], [[Morocco]] and [[Tunisia]]. ''Mammuthus subplanifrons'', found in [[South Africa]] and [[Kenya]], is also believed to be one of the oldest species (about 4 million years ago).

Despite their African ancestry, they are in fact more closely related to the modern [[Asian Elephant]] than either of the two [[African elephant]]s (as both ''Mammuthus'' and ''Elephas'' also originated in Africa). The common ancestor of both mammoths and Asian elephants split from the line of African elephants in the [[Late Miocene]] about 6 - 7.3 million years ago, probably due to the uplift of East Africa and increasing aridity in the [[Middle East]]. The Asian elephants and mammoths diverged about half a million years later, i.e. 5.5 - 6.3 million years ago.(Capelli ''et al.'' 2006)

In due course the African mammoth migrated north to Europe and gave rise to a new species, the southern mammoth (''Mammuthus meridionalis''). This eventually spread across Europe and Asia and crossed the now-submerged [[Bering Land Bridge]] into North America.

Around 700,000 years ago, the warm climate of the time deteriorated markedly and the [[savanna]]h plains of Europe, Asia and North America gave way to colder and less fertile [[steppes]]. The southern mammoth consequently declined, being replaced across most of its territory by the cold-adapted steppe mammoth (''Mammuthus trogontherii''). This in turn gave rise to the [[woolly mammoth]], ''Mammuthus primigenius'') around 300,000 years ago. Woolly mammoths were better able to cope with the extreme cold of the [[Ice Age]]s.

The woollies were a spectacularly successful species; they ranged from [[Spain]] to North America and are thought to have existed in huge numbers. The Russian researcher Sergei Zimov estimates that during the last Ice Age, parts of Siberia may have had an average population density of sixty animals per hundred square kilometres - equivalent to African elephants today.{{Fact|date=February 2007}}

==Extinction==

[[Image:Mammouth.png|thumb|left|150px|A drawn mammoth]]

Most mammoths died out at the end of the last [[Ice Age]]. A definitive explanation for their mass extinction is yet to be agreed upon. A small population survived on [[St. Paul Island, Alaska]], up until 6000 BC,<ref name=livescience/> and the small mammoths of [[Wrangel Island]] became extinct only around 2500 BC.<ref>{{cite web

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| coauthors =

| title =Woolly Mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius)

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| publisher =[[Academy of Natural Sciences]]

| date =

| url =http://www.ansp.org/museum/jefferson/otherFossils/mammuthus.php#top

| format =

| doi =

| accessdate = 2007-07-20 }}</ref>

Whether the general mammoth population died out for climatic reasons or due to overhunting by humans is controversial. Another theory suggests that mammoths may have fallen victim to an infectious disease. A combination of climate change and hunting by humans is probably the most likely explanation for their extinction.

New data derived from studies done on living elephants (see Levy 2006) suggests that though human hunting may not have been the primary cause toward the mammoth's final extinction, human hunting was likely a strong contributing factor. ''[[Homo erectus]]'' is known to have consumed mammoth meat as early as 1.8 million years ago (Levy 2006: 295).

However, the [[American Institute of Biological Sciences]] also notes that bones of dead elephants, left on the ground and subsequently trampled by other elephants, tend to bear marks resembling butchery marks, which have previously been misinterpreted as such by [[Archaeology|archaeologists]].

The survival of the dwarf mammoths on Russia's [[Wrangel Island]] was due to the fact that the island was very remote, and uninhabited in the early [[Holocene]] period. The actual island was not discovered by modern civilization until the 1820s by American whalers. A similar [[Insular dwarfism|dwarfing]] occurred with the [[Pygmy Mammoth]] on the outer [[Channel Islands of California]], but at an earlier period. Those animals were very likely killed by early Paleo-Native Americans, and habitat loss caused by a rising sea level that split the [[Santa Rosae]] into the outer Channel Islands.

==Size==

[[Image:mammoth2.jpg|thumb|242px|A full size reconstruction of a mammoth species, the [[woolly mammoth]], at Ipswich Museum, [[Ipswich]], [[Suffolk]]]]

It is a common misconception that mammoths were much larger than modern elephants, an error that has led to "mammoth" being used as an adjective meaning "very big". Certainly, the largest known species, the [[Imperial Mammoth]] of [[California]], reached heights of at least 5 [[metre]]s (16 [[foot (unit of measure)|feet]]) at the shoulder. Mammoths would probably normally weigh in the region of 6 to 8 [[tonne]]s, but exceptionally large males may have exceeded 12 tonnes. A 3.3 m. (11 ft.) long mammoth tusk was discovered north of [[Lincoln, Illinois]] in 2005.<ref>[http://dnr.state.il.us/pubaffairs/2006/August/woolly.htm ''Recently discovered 11-foot long Woolly Mammoth tusk on display at the Illinois State Museum]'' Illinois Department of Natural Resources press release, August 14, 2006 </ref> However, most species of mammoth were only about as large as a modern [[Asian Elephant]]. Fossils of species of [[Dwarf elephant|dwarf mammoth]] have been found on the Californian [[Santa Rosae|Channel Island]]s (''[[Mammuthus exilis]]'') and the Mediterranean island of [[Sardinia]] (''Mammuthus lamarmorae''). There was also a race of dwarf [[woolly mammoth]]s on [[Wrangel Island]], north of Siberia, within the Arctic Circle.

Based on studies of their close relatives, the modern elephants, mammoths probably had a [[gestation]] period of 22 months, resulting in a single calf being born. Their social structure was probably the same as that of [[African elephant|African]] and [[Asian elephant]]s, with females living in herds headed by a matriarch, whilst bulls lived solitary lives or formed loose groups after sexual maturity.{{Fact|date=April 2007}}

==Well-preserved specimens==

In May of 2007, the carcass of a six-month-old [[Lyuba|female mammoth calf]] was discovered encased in a layer of [[permafrost]] near the Yuribei River in Russia where it had been buried for up to 40,000 years. Alexei Tikhonov, the Russian Academy of Science's Zoological Institute's deputy director has dismissed the prospect of cloning the animal, as the whole cells required for cloning would have burst under the freezing conditions. [[DNA]] is expected to be well-preserved enough to be useful for research on mammoth [[phylogeny]] and perhaps [[physiology]] however.<ref name='BBC-Mammoth-2007'>{{cite news | first=Paul | last=Rincon | coauthors= | title=Baby mammoth discovery unveiled | date=2007-07-10 | publisher=The BBC | url =http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6284214.stm | work =news.bbc.co.uk | pages = | accessdate = 2007-07-13 | language = }}</ref><ref name='Reuters-Mammoth-2007'>{{cite news | first=Dmitry | last=Solovyov | coauthors= | title=Baby mammoth find promises breakthrough | date=2007-07-11 | publisher=[[Reuters]] | url =http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSL1178205120070711 | work =reuters.com | pages = | accessdate = 2007-07-13 | language = }}</ref>

==See also==

*[[Elephant]]

*[[Mastodon]]

*[[Pleistocene Park]]

*[[La Brea Tar Pits]] - cluster of tar pits located in California, USA

==References==

*{{aut|Capelli, Cristian; MacPhee, Ross D.E.; Roca, Alfred L.; Brisighelli, Francesca; Georgiadis, Nicholase; O'Brien, Stephen J.; Greenwood, Alex D.}} (2006): A nuclear DNA phylogeny of the woolly mammoth (''Mammuthus primigenius''). ''Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution'' '''40''' (2) 620–627. {{doi|10.1016/j.ympev.2006.03.015}} (HTML abstract). Supplemental data available to subscribers.

*{{aut|Levy, Sharon}} (2006): Clashing with Titans. ''[[BioScience]]'' '''56'''(4): 292-298. [[Digital Object Identifier|DOI]]:10.1641/0006-3568(2006)56[292:CWT]2.0.CO;2 [http://www.bioone.org/perlserv/?request=res-loc&uri=urn%3Aap%3Apdf%3Adoi%3A10.1641%2F0006-3568%282006%2956%5B292%3ACWT%5D2.0.CO%3B2 PDF fulltext]

*{{aut|Lister, Adrian & Bahn, Paul}} (1994): ''Mammoths''. MacMillan, London. ISBN 0-02-572985-3

*{{aut|Martin, Paul S.}} (2005): ''Twilight of the mammoths: Ice Age extinctions and the rewilding of America''. University of California Press, Berkeley. ISBN 0-520-23141-4

*{{aut|Mercer, H.C.}} (1885): ''The Lenape Stone or The Indian and the Mammoth''. [http://fax.libs.uga.edu/E98xP4xM5/ DjVu fulltext] [http://fax.libs.uga.edu/E98xP4xM5/1f/lenape_stone.pdf PDF fulltext]

*{{aut|Stone, Richard}} (2001): ''Mammoth: The resurrection of an Ice Age giant''. Fourth Estate, London. ISBN 1-84115-518-7

===Footnotes===

==External links==

* "[http://rbcm1.rbcm.gov.bc.ca/hhistory/mammoth/mammothstory.html The Mammoth Story]" by Grant Keddie - an article on the [[Royal British Columbia Museum]] website

* [http://www.mammothsite.com Mammoth Site] of [[Hot Springs, South Dakota]]

* "[http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/lastmammoth.html The Great Mammoth Hoax]"

* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5008664.stm BBC: Mammoth skeleton found in Siberia]

* [http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/node/903 "Back from the dead":] A feature on efforts to clone mammoths back from extinction, ''Cosmos Magazine'', 6 December 2006.

* [http://archives.stupidquestion.net/sq21405.html Q: Has anybody ever eaten the meat of a frozen mammoth?], ''Stupid Question'', February 14, 2005, by John Ruch.

* [http://www.worldhistoryblog.com/2006/05/humans-not-responsible-for-mammoth.html Humans not responsible for mammoth extinction]

* [http://www.baylor.edu/pr/news.php?action=story&story=44819 The Waco Mammoth Site]

*[http://www.cwu.edu/~masters/mammoth.html Wenas Creek Mammoth Site] The Wenas Creek Mammoth Project is a Central Washington University (CWU) scientific investigation of mammoth bones found on private land in the Wenas Creek Valley near Selah, Washington

*[http://www.ivoryandart.com/servlet/the-Mammoth-Ivory/Categories Mammoth ivory Collection] The Mammoth Ivory collection

[[Category:Pleistocene extinctions]]

[[Category:Pleistocene mammals]]

[[Category:Prehistoric elephants]]

[[Category:Extinct animals of Europe]]

[[Category:Extinct animals of the United States]]

[[ar:ماموث]]

[[zh-min-nan:Mammoth]]

[[bs:Mamut]]

[[br:Mammout]]

[[bg:Мамут]]

[[ca:Mamut]]

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[[da:Mammut]]

[[de:Mammuts]]

[[es:Mammuthus]]

[[eo:Mamuto]]

[[eu:Mamut (animalia)]]

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[[gl:Mamut]]

[[zh-classical:長毛象]]

[[ko:매머드]]

[[hr:Mamuti]]

[[io:Mamuto]]

[[id:Mammoth]]

[[ia:Mammut]]

[[it:Mammuthus primigenius]]

[[he:ממותה]]

[[kn:ಮ್ಯಾಮತ್]]

[[lt:Mamutas]]

[[hu:Mamut]]

[[ml:മാമോത്ത്]]

[[nah:Elepantzoyotl]]

[[nl:Mammoeten]]

[[ja:マンモス]]

[[no:Mammuter]]

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[[pl:Mamut]]

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[[ro:Mamut]]

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[[ru:Мамонты]]

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[[sh:Mamut]]

[[fi:Mammutit]]

[[sv:Mammutar]]

[[th:ช้างแมมมอธ]]

[[vi:Voi Ma mút]]

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[[uk:Мамут]]

[[zh-yue:長毛象]]

[[zh:猛犸象]]