INTRO

Woolly Mammoth
Lyuba
The woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) is a species of mammoth that lived about
400,000 years ago in eastern Asia. Its closest extant relative is the Asian elephant. The
appearance and behaviour 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.

The woolly mammoth was roughly the same size as modern African elephants. Males
reached shoulder heights between 2.7 and 3.4 m (8.9 and 11.2 ft) and weighed up to 6 tonnes
(6.6 short tons). Females averaged 2.62.9 metres (8.59.5 ft) in height and weighed up to 4
tonnes (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 colour of the coat
varied from dark to light. The ears and tail were short to minimise frostbite and heat loss. It
had long, curved tusks and four molars, which were replaced six times during the lifetime of
an individual. Its behaviour 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 stretched
across northern Eurasia and North America.
Food at various stages of digestion has been found in the intestines of several woolly
mammoths, giving a good picture of their diet. Woolly mammoths sustained themselves on
plant food, mainly grass and sedges, which were supplemented with herbaceous plants,
flowering plants, shrubs, mosses, and tree matter. The composition and exact varieties
differed from location to location. Woolly mammoths needed a varied diet to support their
growth, like modern elephants. An adult of six tonnes would need to eat 180 kg (397 lb)
daily, and may have foraged as long as twenty hours every day. The two-fingered tip of the
trunk was probably adapted for picking up the short grasses of the last ice age (Quaternary
glaciation, 2.58 million years ago to present) by wrapping around them, whereas modern
elephants curl their trunks around the longer grass of their tropical environments. The trunk
could also be used for pulling off large grass tufts, delicately picking buds and flowers, and
tearing off leaves and branches where trees and shrubs were present.

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.

TYPE
Trace Fossil - a fossil of a footprint, trail, burrow, or other trace of an
animal rather than of the animal itself.
Mold Fossil - A fossil formed when an animal, plant, or other organism
dies and is covered by sediment, its flesh decays and bones deteriorate
due to chemical reactions, and a cavity remains below the ground surface.
Cast Fossil -A fossil formed when an animal, plant, or other organism
dies, its flesh decays and bones deteriorate due to chemical reactions;
minerals gradually enter into the cavity, resulting in a cast.
*Actual Bone Fossil - In a bone fossil, minerals have filled many of the tiny
spaces and have become hard, like rock. The minerals make the bone
darker and heavier.
HOW FORMED
How are fossils formed?Freezing (refrigeration)-This is the best
means of preservation of ancient materials. It happens only rarely. The
animal must be continually frozen from the time of death until discovery.
That limits the possibilities to cold hardy animals from the last ice age.
There have been remarkable discoveries of mammoth and wooly
rhinoceros found in ice from Alaska and Siberia. Specimens with flesh,
skin, and hair intact have been found. Some of these finds suggest that
they were flash frozen, with food still in the mouth and stomach.
With its matted hair and bald patches it resembles a much-loved toy
somewhat past her prime.

In fact this creature is the best-preserved specimen of a woolly mammoth

ever found whose prehistoric prime was 39,000 years ago.

Even clumps of the animals distinguishing hair are remarkably intact after
being trapped in glacial ice until she was discovered in Siberia earlier this
year.

As well as a sample of blood, Russian scientists also discovered a well-

preserved sample of muscle tissue from the woolly mammoth carcass. The
blood and tissue were preserved because they were buried in an ice tomb
on the Novosibirsk islands for what's thought to have been 10,000 years

Parts of the carcass are especially well preserved because they remained
entirely frozen for thousands of years including the hair.
Modern creationists think that the mammoths were not fossilized by the
Flood. Rather, they were fossilized about 700 years later by catastrophes
towards the end of the Ice Age, which was an aftermath of the Flood. This
is shown by the fossil locations always in deposits near the surface
throughout the mid and high latitudes, mostly in river valleys, occasionally
in ice wedges.1
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 5,600 years ago and
Wrangel Island until 4,000 years ago.
The woolly mammoth was probably wiped out by rapid climate change
caused by a meteor striking the Earth, not by overhunting as previously
believed
Woolly mammoths mostly became extinct at the end of the last ice age,
about 10,000 years ago. However, one population of woolly mammoths
survived in Alaska up until 3750 B.C. There was also a population at a
remote location on an island in the Arctic Ocean that survived until 1700
B.C. The exact reason they died out is a mystery, though disease is one
theory. Another is that the ancestors of humans hunted them to
extinction. Then there is the theory that a mega-storm wiped out the
woolly mammoth population in one fell swoop.

Another theory for extinction that is gaining ground is that climate change
ultimately caused woolly mammoths to die out. These animals were
especially adapted to the cold during the last ice age, with their thick,
shaggy pelts, layers of underwool and humps with fat deposits. However,
warming decimated the population. Besides their thick coats, woolly
mammoths are also known for their large size and long, curved tusks.

Why Did the Woolly Mammoth Die Out? Reason Number One:
Climate Change

Scientists have always been intrigued about what caused the extinction of
the large mammals, or megafauna, which lived in the late Pleistocene
Period. The Pleistocene Period started about 1.8 million years ago, but
ended just 10,000 years ago with the last ice age.
It was around that time that mammoths, the sabre-toothed cat, ground
sloths and Native American horses and camels all became less populous
and eventually became extinct.
The popular reason often given for the demise of the Woolly Mammoth is
that as the Earth began to heat up, the worlds climate became too much
for the mammoths to handle, who had evolved to live in conditions of a
colder globe.
Climate change has been held widely responsible for this loss, as these
large mammals struggled to adapt to changing conditions and
environments. Mammoths were herbivores so were very dependent on
gaining all the nutrients they needed to survive from the plants that they
ate if climate change led to the dying out of some vital mineral-
supplying plants, mammoths would suffer considerably.

Why Did the Woolly Mammoth Die Out? Reason Number Two:
Humans

But while sudden changes to Earths climate may have played a part in
the demise of the mammoth and other large mammals that roamed the
Earths surface 10,000 or so years ago, scientists are increasingly
beginning to argue that human influence was significant.
When the ice age ended and temperature and climate became more
amenable, vast areas of the world became habitable by humans, who
advanced northwards exploring new territories. As humans spread out
they came into contact with woolly mammoths, which they hunted.
Humans hunted mammoths for their meat, bones and skin. Some
scientists believe that a poor habitat as a result of climate change,
combined with increased contact and hunting by humans as they
increasingly entered their areas of habitat led to their eventual extinction.
The mammoth population was at such a low ebb by the time that they
were hunted by humans some experts argue that even if every human on
the planet at the time killed a mammoth once every three years, the
woolly mammoth would have become extinct. So, while climate change
dealt the mammoth a crippling blow, it may have been human hunters
who landed the killer blow in sealing their fate as an extinct species.

Why Did the Woolly Mammoth Die Out? Reason Number Three:
Meteorites or Comets

Research in 2007 revealed that the demise of the woolly mammoth, in

North America at least, may have actually been caused by the sudden
impact of a meteorite or comet hitting the Earth. Scientists from Brown
University, in Rhode Island, USA, believe that they have found evidence of
an asteroid hitting the Earth, which led to the extinction of large
mammals, including the woolly mammoth in North America, as a result of
massive climate change.
The scientists argue that a large asteroid or comets would have hit North
America, leading to the melting of ice sheets, extreme wildfires and the
whipping up of hurricane force winds, which in turn led to the extreme big
freeze cooling of what is referred to as the Younger Dryas Period. The
Younger Dryas period took place an estimated 10,000 or so years ago,
when the world was heating up from the last ice age. However, it was a
short-lived (700 years) cold snap that had a massive effect on the climate
of North America and Europe.

www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2358695/Woolly-mammoth-
frozen-Siberia-39-000-YEARS-goes-display-Tokyo-woolly.html#ixzz4IDzl8ksj
www.reference.com/history/did-woolly-mammoth-become-extinct-
5d31cab329d092d9#
https://www.highlightskids.com/science-questions/dinosaur-fossils-
different-bones
www.yourdictionary.com
http://www.nationalgeographic.com.au/history/why-did-the-woolly-
mammoth-die-out.aspx

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