How Did Woolly Mammoths Function?

Quck answer

Woolly mammoths were massive, hairy elephants that roamed the Earth during the Ice Age. They had long, curved tusks and thick fur to help them survive in cold environments. Woolly mammoths were herbivores and grazed on grasses and other plants. They were social animals that lived in herds and were hunted by early humans. Scientists have studied their bones, teeth, and DNA to learn more about their biology and behavior. Today, woolly mammoths are extinct, but efforts are underway to clone them using preserved DNA.

Extinct Animals

If you travel back in time about 4,000 years, you may see some shaggy quadrupeds on a remote Russian Arctic island, with trunks tugging up tufts of grassy ground cover and shoving them into their tusked mouths. These animals are the Wrangel Island mammoths, the dwarf descendant of Mammuthus primigenius, the woolly mammoth. They are the last of their kind. Unlike their larger ancestors, these mammoths survived the extinction that finished off so many large mammals more than 6,000 years earlier. However, time would catch up with them as well, likely due to climate change, human hunting, or some combination of the two. We know more about woolly mammoths and mammoths in general than any other extinct species. Their well-preserved remains can contain muscle, blood, teeth, bone, tusk, and even brain. By combining what we know about modern elephants with evidence from woolly mammoth fossils, we can confidently paint a picture of what these woolly wonders were really like and how they functioned.

A Day in the Life of a Woolly Mammoth

Although only a replica from the Royal British Columbia Museum, it gives us an idea of how enormous woolly mammoths were when compared to humans. During the Pleistocene, which lasted from 1.7 million to 11,500 years ago and ended with the most recent ice age, woolly mammoths roamed across landscapes that are unlike those in existence today. The mammoth steppe was supported by a unique climate and consisted of a rich and varied mixture of grasses, herbs, and sedges that spread from Ireland to Siberia and across the Bering land bridge to much of modern-day Canada. They grazed across this landscape for 20 hours a day in pursuit of food. The Mammuthus primigenius were about the size of modern elephants and occurred as lone males or in matriarchal family groups of 2-20 smaller females and calves. They were able to withstand the chill of their northern climes through a number of adaptations, including a 3-4-inch layer of fat, inch-thick oily skin, and a wooly undercoat. These massive mammals shared the land with other grazers like woolly rhinoceroses and long-horned bison and predators such as saber-tooth cats and cave hyenas. Mammoth calves were mostly born in the spring when fresh growth could support lactating mothers. Male woolly mammoths had a musth gland, which secreted a fluid that helped establish reproductive hierarchy during their aggressive, unpredictable musth phase. These animals were likely highly social, educating their calves and perhaps even guarding and burying their dead. They may have periodically come together in great migratory herds and could probably swim to islands a few miles offshore. In short, they were animals that had evolved to become well adapted to their environment.

Throughout their lifetime, mammoths’ tusks, evolved from their upper incisors, were not only useful for fighting but also for stripping trees and plowing through dirt and snow. These tusks would continue to grow as the mammoth aged, while the rest of its teeth consisted of 12-inch molars with grooves to aid in breaking down tough food. Like present-day elephants, mammoths would go through six sets of teeth in their 60-year lifespan and typically die after the last set wore out. The woolly mammoth is one of several large herbivores descended from primitive proboscideans, including mastodons, elephants, and other mammoth species, which split off from the mammalian tree around 55 million years ago. The mammoth family originated in Africa around 5-6 million years ago, but it wasn’t until 400,000 years ago that the woolly mammoth emerged as a specialized species suitable for the cold environment of Siberia. The mammoth family was highly adaptable to climate fluctuations, but most of the large mammal species in the Northern Hemisphere died out between 14,000-10,000 years ago, including the mammoths.

Lyuba: Preserved Mammoth Calf

In 2007, a baby mammoth carcass was found in Russia’s Yamal Peninsula. It was the most intact prehistoric mammal ever discovered. The calf, named Lyuba, was around 33.5 inches (85 centimeters) high and weighed 110 pounds (50 kilograms) when found. It is believed that Lyuba was preserved well as she was buried quickly and recovered before scavengers could eat it.

The Extinction of Mammoths

The extinction of mammoths has been debated by paleontologists for many years. Various theories have been put forward including meteor strikes, diseases, climate change, and hunting by humans. However, there is no evidence to support meteor strikes or diseases as the cause of extinction. The climate hypothesis suggests that mammoths were confined to specific areas and unable to adapt to changes in the climate and habitat, leading to isolation and starvation. The overkill hypothesis suggests that humans hunted mammoths to extinction, but it is uncertain how often humans actually hunted mammoths. The limitations of large mammals may have also contributed to their extinction, leading to a decline in population and survival of only the dwarf descendants on scattered islands.

The possibility of cloning a mammoth or breeding one through in vitro fertilization (IVF) exists, but cloning dinosaurs is impossible due to the fragility and limited shelf life of DNA. Cloning would involve replacing the nucleus of an elephant ovum with one from a frozen mammoth carcass and implanting it in a female elephant’s uterus, while IVF would fertilize an elephant egg with mammoth sperm to produce a hybrid. Both options raise ethical and practical concerns. The Pleistocene era, in which mammoths thrived, was governed by the same forces and elements as the modern world. Mammoths may have been killed by hunters or climate-driven starvation, which has implications for the survival of their living cousins, elephants, who are keystone species in their ecosystems.

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Sources

• American Museum of Natural History. “Could a Combination of Causes be Responsible for the Late Pleistocene Extinctions?” Humans and Other Catastrophes. (Jan. 22, 2015) http://www.amnh.org/science/biodiversity/extinction/Day1/combo/MainKeystone.html
• American Museum of Natural History. “What is the Overkill Hypothesis?” Humans and Other Catastrophes. (Jan. 22, 2015) http://www.amnh.org/science/biodiversity/extinction/Day1/overkill/Bit1.html
• BBC. “Proboscidea.” (Jan. 23, 2015) http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/life/Proboscidea
• BBC. “Woolly Mammoth.” (Jan. 22, 2015) http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/life/Woolly_mammoth
• Benazzi, Stefano. “Early Dispersal of Modern Humans in Europe and Implications for Neanderthal Behaviour.” Nature. Vol. 479. Page 525. Nov. 24, 2011. (Jan. 21, 2015) http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v479/n7374/full/nature10617.html
• Bower, Bruce. “Ancient Siberians May Have Rarely Hunted Mammoths.” Science News. June 12, 2013. (Jan. 21, 2015) https://www.sciencenews.org/article/ancient-siberians-may-have-rarely-hunted-mammoths
• Bower, Bruce. “Neanderthals’ Mammoth Building Project.” Science News. Dec. 2, 2011. (Jan. 21, 2015) https://www.sciencenews.org/node/15131
• Campbell, Kevin L., et al. “Substitutions in Woolly Mammoth Hemoglobin Confer Biochemical Properties Adaptive for Cold Tolerance.” Nature Genetics. Vol. 42. Page 536. (Jan. 26, 2015) http://www.nature.com/ng/journal/v42/n6/abs/ng.574.html
• Cohen, Claudine. “The Fate of the Mammoth: Fossils, Myth, and History.” University of Chicago Press. 2002.
• Conard, Nicholas J. “Palaeolithic Ivory Sculptures from Southwestern Germany and the Origins of Figurative Art.” Nature. Vol. 426. Page 830. Dec. 25, 2003. (Jan. 23, 2015) http://www.urgeschichte.uni-tuebingen.de/fileadmin/downloads/Conard/Conard_03_Nature.pdf
• Demay, LaГ«titia, StГ©phane PГ©an and MarylГЁne Patou-Mathis. “Mammoths Used as Food and Building Resources by Neanderthals: Zooarchaeological Study Applied to Layer 4, Molodova I (Ukraine).” Quaternary International. Vol. 276. Page 212. Oct. 25, 2012. (Jan. 21, 2015) http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1040618211006598
• Guthrie, R. Dale. “New Carbon Dates Link Climatic Change with Human Colonization and Pleistocene Extinctions.” Nature. Vol. 441, no. 7090. Page 207. May 11, 2006. (Jan. 22, 2015) http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v441/n7090/full/nature04604.html
• Higham, Tom et al. “The Earliest Evidence for Anatomically Modern Humans in Northwestern Europe.” Nature. Vol. 479. Page 521. Nov. 24, 2011. (Jan. 21, 2015) http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v479/n7374/full/nature10484.html
• Krause, Johannes et al. “Multiplex Amplification of the Mammoth Mitochondrial Genome and the Evolution of Elephantidae.” Nature. Vol. 439. Page 724. Feb. 9, 2006. (Jan. 30, 2015) http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v439/n7077/full/nature04432.html
• Lister, Adrian and Paul Bahn. “Mammoths: Giants of the Ice Age.” University of California Press. First Edition, Revised. 2007.
• Mammoth Genome Project. “Mammoths and Human Society.” Pennsylvania State University. (Jan. 23, 2015) http://mammoth.psu.edu/society.html
• Mueller, Tom. “Ice Baby.” National Geographic. May 2009. (Jan. 26, 2015) http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/05/mammoths/mueller-text
• National Geographic. “Woolly Mammoth Fact File.” NAT GEO WILD. (Jan. 26, 2015) http://natgeotv.com.au/tv/waking-the-baby-mammoth/woolly-mammoth-fact-file.aspx
• Nikolskiy, Pavel and Vladimir Pitulko. “Evidence From the Yana Paleolithic Site, Arctic Siberia, Yields Clues to the Riddle of Mammoth Hunting.” Journal of Archaeological Science. June 5, 2013. (Jan. 21, 2015) http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305440313001957
• Perkins, Sid. “Mammoth Findings: Asian Elephant is Closest Living Kin.” Science News. Dec. 20, 2005. (Jan. 22, 2015) https://www.sciencenews.org//node/10237
• Poinar, Hendrik. “Bring Back the Woolly Mammoth: An Introduction.” TEDxDeExtinction. Sept. 2013. (Jan. 26, 2015) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIbdYt8tYDY

The following is a list of sources related to mammoths:

– TEDxDeExtinction’s “Mammoth!” talk by Hendrik Poinar from March 2013.

– The Journal of Experimental Biology’s article “How Woolly Mammoth Blood Cheated the Cold” by Jodie L. Rummer from August 1, 2010.

– The San Diego Zoo’s “Mammoth Fact Sheet”.

– Science News’ article “When Flowers Died Out In Arctic, So Did Mammoths” by Tina Hesman Saey from February 6, 2014.

– Trends in Ecology and Evolution’s article “Understanding Proboscidean Evolution: a Formidable Task” by Jeheskel Shoshani from December 1998.

– Smithsonian magazine’s video “How Fast Can an Elephant Run?”

– The University of California Museum of Paleontology’s “About Mammoths” page.

– The University of California Museum of Paleontology’s page on Georges Cuvier (1769-1832).

– The University of California Museum of Paleontology’s “The Gomphotheriidae” page from November 2010.

– The University of California Museum of Paleontology’s “The Proboscidea” page from November 2010.

– Nature’s article “Fifty Thousand Years of Arctic Vegetation and Megafaunal Diet” by Eske Willerslev et al. from February 6, 2014.

FAQ

1. What are woolly mammoths?

Woolly mammoths were large, furry, prehistoric elephants that lived during the last ice age, about 10,000 years ago. They were adapted to the cold environment, with a thick coat of fur, long tusks, and a hump of fat on their backs.

2. How did woolly mammoths get their name?

The name “woolly mammoth” comes from the animal’s long, shaggy fur, which helped it stay warm in the cold climate. Their fur was up to 3 feet long, and was made up of two layers: a coarse outer layer and a soft under layer.

3. What did woolly mammoths eat?

Woolly mammoths were herbivores, and their diet consisted mainly of grasses, sedges, and other plants. They had long, curved tusks that they used to dig in the snow and ice to find food.

4. How big were woolly mammoths?

Woolly mammoths were about the same size as modern elephants, with males reaching up to 12 feet tall at the shoulder and weighing up to 6 tons. Females were slightly smaller.

5. Where did woolly mammoths live?

Woolly mammoths lived in cold, grassy plains in North America, Europe, and Asia. They were well adapted to the harsh environment, with a thick layer of fur and a layer of fat under their skin to keep them warm.

6. How did woolly mammoths communicate?

Woolly mammoths communicated with each other through a variety of sounds, including trumpeting, grunting, and rumbling. They also used body language, such as raising their trunks or ears, to communicate.

7. Why did woolly mammoths become extinct?

The exact cause of woolly mammoth extinction is still a subject of debate, but it is believed to have been a combination of climate change and human hunting. The end of the ice age brought about warmer temperatures and a change in vegetation, which may have made it difficult for the mammoths to find food. Humans also hunted woolly mammoths for food, clothing, and tools.

8. Are there any woolly mammoths alive today?

No, woolly mammoths are extinct and have been for thousands of years. However, scientists are currently working on cloning woolly mammoths using DNA from preserved specimens. It is still a long way off, but it is possible that we may one day see woolly mammoths again.

9. Why are woolly mammoths important?

Woolly mammoths are important because they provide valuable insights into the prehistoric past and the natural world. Studying woolly mammoths can help us understand how animals adapt to different environments, how climate change affects ecosystems, and how humans have impacted the natural world throughout history.