| Woolly Mammoth Temporal range: Middle Pleistocene – Late Holocene | |
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| Mammuthus primigenius artwork by RJ Palmer | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Proboscidea |
| Family: | Elephantidae |
| Tribe: | Elephantini |
| Genus: | †Mammuthus |
| Species: | †M. primigenius |
| Type species | |
| †Mammuthus primigenius Blumenbach, 1799 | |
| Synonyms | |
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The Woolly Mammoth is a species of mammoth which lived from the Middle Pleistocene to the Early Holocene. The word "mammoth" comes from early 1800s Russian ма́мант mámant which is probably from a Uralic language, most likely from Proto-Mansi *mē̮ŋ-ońt meaning "earth-horn". This animal is It was large and covered with a shaggy exterior of long dark brown hair. It may have become extinct of climate change or hunting by prehistoric humans. It had very long, loopy tusks. It was one of the most famous ice age animals. Bodies have been found frozen well-preserved in ice or in tar pits. They were preyed upon by saber-toothed cats or any other carnivore of the ice age. Amazing are the findings of frozen mammoths, with preserved skin, meat, muscles and organs. There was even blood coming out of the frozen mammoths. The flight kept everything like food in the freezer. There were still hairs on the frozen mammoths. DNA was obtained from the blood and flesh of the mammoth, in the future it may be possible to clone mammoths.
More generally, a mammoth is any species of the extinct genus Mammuthus. Proboscideans are members of Elephantidae, the family of elephants and mammoths, and close relatives of modern elephants. They were often equipped with long curved tusks and, in northern species, a covering of long hair. They lived from the Pliocene Epoch from around 4.8 million into the Pleistocene at about 4,500 years ago. The word mammoth comes from the Russian мамонт mamont , probably in turn from the Vogul (Mansi) language, mang ont, meaning "earth horn".
An extinct class of elephants, mammoths belonged to a diverse and widespread group of mammals known as the proboscideans, characterized by long, trunk-like noses. Mammoths first appeared in Africa early in the Pleistocene Epoch (the last 1.6 million years of the Earth’s history) and later migrated to Europe, Siberia, and across to North America. Proboscideans were very widespread. Their fossil remains can be found on every continent except Australia and South America.
The genus Mammuthus includes a number of several species, of which the best known is the woolly mammoth.There are also the steppe mammoth, imperial mammoth, dwarf mammoths, Columbian mammoth, Songhua river mammoth and Wrangel islands woolly mammoth.
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Woolly Mammoth skeleton at American Museum of Natural History.
Most mammoths became extinct around 10,000 years ago, surviving on Siberia’s Wrangel Island longer than anywhere else on earth. Radiocarbon dating indicates that a dwarf population existed there until between 7000 and 3,700 years ago.
In October 20, 2021, new studies show that the Woolly mammoth went extinct because of climate change not humans.[1]
In December 8, 2021, It is revealed in the soil that the Woolly mammoth existed 5,000 years ago.[2]
Taxonomy[]
Remains of various extinct elephants were known by Europeans for centuries, but were generally interpreted, based on biblical accounts, as the remains of legendary creatures such as behemoths or giants. They were thought to be remains of modern elephants that had been brought to Europe during the Roman Republic, for example the war elephants of Hannibal and Pyrrhus of Epirus, or animals that had wandered north. The first woolly mammoth remains studied by European scientists were examined by Hans Sloane in 1728 and consisted of fossilised teeth and tusks from Siberia. Sloane was the first to recognise that the remains belonged to elephants. Sloane turned to another biblical explanation for the presence of elephants in the Arctic, asserting that they had been buried during the Great Flood, and that Siberia had previously been tropical before a drastic climate change. Others interpreted Sloane's conclusion slightly differently, arguing the flood had carried elephants from the tropics to the Arctic. Sloane's paper was based on travellers' descriptions and a few scattered bones collected in Siberia and Britain. He discussed the question of whether or not the remains were from elephants, but drew no conclusions. In 1738, the German zoologist Johann Philipp Breyne argued that mammoth fossils represented some kind of elephant. He could not explain why a tropical animal would be found in such a cold area as Siberia, and suggested that they might have been transported there by the Great Flood.
In 1796, French biologist Georges Cuvier was the first to identify the woolly mammoth remains not as modern elephants transported to the Arctic, but as an entirely new species. He argued this species had gone extinct and no longer existed, a concept that was not widely accepted at the time. Following Cuvier's identification, German naturalist Johann Friedrich Blumenbach gave the woolly mammoth its scientific name, Elephas primigenius, in 1799, placing it in the same genus as the Asian elephant. This name is Latin for "the first-born elephant". Cuvier coined the name Elephas mammonteus a few months later, but the former name was subsequently used. In 1828, the British naturalist Joshua Brookes used the name Mammuthus borealis for woolly mammoth fossils in his collection that he put up for sale, thereby coining a new genus name.
Where and how the word "mammoth" originated is unclear. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, it comes from an old Vogul word mēmoŋt, "earth-horn". It may be a version of mehemot, the Arabic version of the biblical word "behemoth". Another possible origin is Estonian, where maa means "earth", and mutt means "mole". The word was first used in Europe during the early 17th century, when referring to maimanto tusks discovered in Siberia. American president Thomas Jefferson, who had a keen interest in palaeontology, was partially responsible for transforming the word "mammoth" from a noun describing the prehistoric elephant to an adjective describing anything of surprisingly large size. The first recorded use of the word as an adjective was in a description of a wheel of cheese (the "Cheshire Mammoth Cheese") given to Jefferson in 1802.
By the early 20th century, the taxonomy of extinct elephants was complex. In 1942, American palaeontologist Henry Fairfield Osborn's posthumous monograph on the Proboscidea was published, wherein he used various taxon names that had previously been proposed for mammoth species, including replacing Mammuthus with Mammonteus, as he believed the former name to be invalidly published. Mammoth taxonomy was simplified by various researchers from the 1970s onwards, all species were retained in the genus Mammuthus, and many proposed differences between species were instead interpreted as intraspecific variation. Osborn chose two molars (found in Siberia and Osterode) from Blumenbach's collection at Göttingen University as the lectotype specimens for the woolly mammoth, since holotype designation was not practised in Blumenbach's time. Russian palaeontologist Vera Gromova further proposed the former should be considered the lectotype with the latter as paralectotype. Both molars were thought lost by the 1980s, and the more complete "Taimyr mammoth" found in Siberia in 1948 was therefore proposed as the neotype specimen in 1990. Resolutions to historical issues about the validity of the genus name Mammuthus and the type species designation of E. primigenius were also proposed. The paralectotype molar (specimen GZG.V.010.018) has since been located in the Göttingen University collection, identified by comparing it with Osborn's illustration of a cast.
Cultural Significance[]
The Woolly Mammoth at the Royal BC Museum, Victoria, British Columbia.
The woolly mammoth has been culturally significant long after its extinction. Indigenous people of Siberia have found what are known as woolly mammoth remains, collecting them for the ivory trade. The woolly mammoth has also left its imprint in some native siberian cultures. The Yukaghir languages have words refering to the mammoth. Southern Yukaghir холҕут (qolhut) and Northern Yukaghir холҕо (qolho) both mean mammoth and come from a reconstructed Proto-Yukaghir *qolq-. The native Yukaghir shamanist religion also mention the mammoth as a guardian spirit of certain shamans. Shamans assisted by the spirit are regarde as the most powerful shamans. Woolly mammoth tusks have also been traded in Asia long before Europeans became acquainted with them. Güyük, the 13th-Century Khan of the Mongols, is reputed to have sat on a throne made of mammoth ivory. The indigenous people of North America used mammoth ivory for bones for tools and art. In Siberia, Native American natives had "myths of observations" explaning the remains of woolly mammoths and other elephants; the Bering Strait Inupiat believed the bones came from burrowing creatures, while other people associated them with primordial giants or "giant beasts". Observers have interperated lengends of several Native American peoples as containing folk memory of extinct elephants, though scholars are skeptical that folk memory could survive such a long time.
In popular culture[]
- The main characters Manny, Ellie, Peaches, and Julian from the Ice Age Film series are Woolly Mammoths.
- The Woolly mammoth appeared in the movie Journey to the Beginning of Time as a Stop Motion creature.
- The Woolly mammoth appeared in Disney's Brother Bear and Brother Bear 2.
- The Woolly mammoth appeared in the trilogy of Night at the Museum.
- A Woolly Mammoth appeared on Dinosaur King.
- The Woolly mammoth appeared in the Warner Bros film 10,000 BC, where the herd was grazing and being chased by hunters and many of them were slaves with their tusks cut off.
- Maurice from Dinosaur Train is a Woolly Mammoth.
- The Woolly mammoth appeared in the 2018 film Alpha.
- It appears in Zoo Tycoon: Dinosaur Digs.
- Woolly Mammoths and other species of mammoths are in many BBC documentaries including the final episode of Walking with Beasts, Wild New World aka Prehistoric America, and Monsters We Met.
- A Woolly Mammoth named Martha appears in the 2006 BBC documentary TV series, Prehistoric Park.
- It was also seen in the PBS NOVA National Geographic Documentary special Ice Age Death Trap.
- Some of the 2 Woolly Mammoths appeared in Animal Kaiser series.
- Mammoth Priest
- Demon Mammoth Gigantos
- In Pokemon series, Mammoswine is based on Mammoth.
- In 10,000 BC, woolly mammoths ("manaks") are shown migrating to the northern steppes, where they are hunted by a tribe of hunters. In the southern desert, mammoths are used by a highly developed civilization to build "Mountains of the Gods".
- It appears in Jurassic Park: Builder as a bronze herbivore in the Glacier Park.
- It appears in ARK: Survival Evolved as one of many creatures that the player can tame.
- It appears in the Cenozoic Park section of Jurassic World: The Game as a tournament Snow creature.
- In the third season of LEGO Legends of Chima, Maula, Mungus and Mottrot are Wooly Mammoths.
- The Woolly mammoth appeared in the documentary Ice Age: Return of the Mammoth.
- In 2 episodes of Captain Planet “The Ark” & “12 angry animals”.
- The Woolly Mammoth appears as an epic in Jurassic World: Alive.
- Ice Age Giants: Secrets under the Ice.
- The Woolly Mammoth appeared in the documentary How To Clone A Woolly Mammoth.
- The Woolly mammoth recently appeared in the new Netflix Original Documentary Series, Life On Our Planet.
- Woolly mammoths appear in the video game Skyrim.
- Woolly mammoths make an appearance in Elder Scrolls Online.
- The Woolly Mammoth appears in Prehistoric Kingdom.
Gallery[]
Woolly Mammoth/Gallery