Mammoth

Mammoth

• North America
• Europe
• Asia
• Africa

As a mammoth (plural: mammoth and woolly mammoths ), scientific name Mammuthus (from French mammouth < russ: Mamont < presumably from the Waldnenzischen ), is referred to an extinct species of elephants in the Pliocene and Pleistocene, with different styles in North America, Europe, Asia and Africa occurred. The last representatives of the genus died only about 4000 years ago on Wrangel Island in the Siberian Arctic Ocean.

In November 2008, the genome sequence of the woolly mammoth (M. primigenius ) was published in the scientific journal "Nature ". Approximately 70 percent of the genetic information could be decrypted. The mammoth genome is the first genome of an extinct animal, which was sequenced.

System

The mammoths have evolved in the early Pliocene in Africa and spread from there to Eurasia and North America. They specialized increasingly on grass food and developed adaptations to the cold. According to molecular genetic studies they had before 6.7 million years, separated from the line that led to the Asian elephant (Elephas maximus). The oldest finds of mammoths are about 4.5 million years old and come from the land sink of Afar in Ethiopia, a possibly slightly older age have tooth residues from the Sinda River in eastern Congo Basin. These findings belong to the type Mammuthus subplanifrons which was also detected in Kenya and South Africa. The species survived safely until about three million years, and shortly thereafter dipped his putative direct successor Mammuthus africanavus on in North Africa. This type was either an evolutionary dead end or the ancestor of Südelefanten. From the steppe mammoth the Südelefanten, which became the ancestor of the woolly mammoth evolved about 750,000 years ago. The prairie mammoth North America has probably also been developed from the Südelefanten, who immigrated before about 1.5 million years ago to America. Some experts also see a mammoth in the origin of the prairie steppe mammoth, which has not yet been detected in North America. It first appeared in the Early Pleistocene in front of around 1.2 million years ago.

The following subspecies are recognized today:

• Mammuthus africanavus Arambourg 1952; Pliocene to Early Pleistocene; North Africa
• Mammuthus columbi Hibbard 1955; Alt- to Late Pleistocene; North and Central America
• Mammuthus creticus Bate 1907; Early Pleistocene; Southern Europe
• Mammuthus exilis Maglio 1970; Medium to Upper Pleistocene; North America
• Mammuthus lamarmorai Major 1883; Upper Pleistocene; Southern Europe
• Mammuthus meridionalis Nesti, 1825; Pliocene to Early Pleistocene; Africa, Eurasia, North America
• Mammuthus primigenius Blumenbach 1799; Middle Pleistocene Mittelholozän; Eurasia, North America
• Mammuthus subplanifrons Osborn 1928; Pliocene; East and Central Africa
• Mammuthus trogontherii Pohlig 1885; Old - to Middle Pleistocene; Eurasia

In general means by "Mammoth " the widespread during the last Ice Age in Europe and North Asia woolly mammoth; most species were mammoth but probably largely hairless. Misleading is the fact that the genus name refers to the mammoth mammoth not about, but only distantly related to the genus of the Real mastodons ( Mammutidae ), Russell animals with four tusks, which also developed hairy forms in the last ice age.

Mammoth, and man

The woolly mammoth was one of the hunting animals of people in the Upper Pleistocene. This is documented by numerous cave paintings and a variety of mammoth bone accumulations in archaeological sites of the Aurignacian, Gravettian and Epigravettian. Spectacular are the mammoth bone houses of Mezhirich, Mezin, Dobranichevka and Kiev, Kirillovskaja Ulica (all Ukraine) from the time of the Eastern European Epigravettiens (corresponding to time about the Magdalenian in Central Europe), which date to 15,000 BP.

Whether excessive hunting ( " overkill hypothesis" ) has caused the extinction of animals or rapid climate changes at the end of the Ice Age ( heating in the Allerød interstadial ) is still controversial. A study by C. Johnson suggests that the extinction of the woolly mammoth and other Pleistocene species was accompanied by a rapid decline in fertility. Too low reproduction rate, he looks at a number of large mammals in Australia, Eurasia, the Americas and Madagascar as the main cause of extinction, while the " overkill hypothesis " (for him, " blitzkrieg hypothesis" ) rejects it as causal scenario. Since types are exposed with declining reproductive rates in human hunting of additional stress, the simultaneity of extinction with the increased hunting is the logical consequence of hunter -gatherer populations.

Previously it was assumed the woolly mammoth was extinct BC in Europe and South Siberia already 10,000 after the end of the Weichsel glaciation once again was able to advance to north-eastern Europe in the last cold phase ( "Younger Dryas "). New findings show, however, that the mammoths disappeared completely until around 8000 BC, from north-eastern Europe. A little later the type disappeared - after today's fossil Report Judging - on the North Siberian mainland. Only on the East Siberian Wrangel Island survived small populations to about 2000 BC The American prairie mammoth died also only from the end of the Ice Age. Simultaneously with the disappearance of mammoths penetrated the end of the last Ice Age groups of modern humans (Homo sapiens) from the south before in these regions.

Discovery of preserved mammoths

In the Asian part of Russia almost completely trapped in the ice well-preserved mammoth bodies are found again and again. Discover these are usually through the miles noticeable acrid musk and smell of decay, when parts of the carcase were exposed by thawing. In addition to the rapid decay and scavengers ensure that such until then for thousands of years continuously frozen carcasses are often completely destroyed already within weeks. In May 2013 was discovered on the Liakhov Islands in the Arctic Ocean by Russian scientists an extremely well-preserved older female mammoth, from whose carcass a sample liquid blood could be obtained. According to the scientists, this increases the chances of a successful cloning mammoths.

Sites and museums

Important to find places that have contributed much to the analysis of the life of the mammoths, including the tar pits of Rancho La Brea and the Bechan Cave, a cave that was used over a period of 1,500 years, 15,000 years ago by prairie mammoths.

Remains in large quantities were also found on the New Siberian Islands, which owe a large part of their history of discovery Russian merchants, the remains of mammoths, in particular their ivory tusks investigated.

Seven complete mammoth skeletons can be seen in Mammutheum victory village, a large one at the Natural History Museum victory village in the Chiemgau and a partial skeleton at the Museum of Prehistory and Early History in Eichstätt. More, more or less complete mammoth skeletons are, for example, in Stuttgart, Munster ( Location: Ahlen ), Bottrop, Darmstadt, Halle an der Saale and Sangerhausen. The largest archaeological site in Switzerland is in Niederweningen where the finds can be seen in a specially decorated mammoth museum.

In June 2009, was discovered in a coal mine in the Serbian Kostolac close to the archaeological site of the former Roman legionary camp Viminacium the nearly intact skeleton of a Südelefanten (Mammuthus meridionalis ). The event that the preliminary age estimates from three to five million years ago, as applicable, this is the oldest evidence of a mammoth in Europe. At the same locality, a major scientific mammoth cemetery was uncovered in 2012 with seven mammoth skeletons. These come from the upper Pleistocene loess layers and are therefore provisionally determined on between 126000-10000 years BC.

Etymology

The term mammoth is common in Europe since the 17th century. The name may have been by the Amsterdam mayor Nicolaas Witsen (1641-1717) introduced, who published a travelogue to Northern Siberia in 1692. The word is also Mamont in Russian and in some older European sources, comes from a Siberian language. As a possible output word the waldnenzische ( forest jurassic ish ) name " Jean- ŋammurəttaə " ( "eartheater" ) was identified.

Pictures

Skeleton of a mammoth

Molar of Mammoth, looking at the occlusal surface

Cross section of a mammoth tusk. The cracks in the outer layers are formed by the loss of moisture which enters after excavation.

Mammoth small sculpture from the Aurignacian ( Vogelherdhöhle cave )