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  • The Woolly Mammoth

facts About The Woolly Mammoth

The Columbian mammoth, M. columbi, also evolved from a population of M. trogontherii which had entered North America. A 2011 genetic study showed that two examined specimens of the Columbian mammoth were grouped within a subclade of woolly mammoths. This suggests that the two populations interbred and produced fertile offspring. It also suggested that a North American form known as "M. jeffersonii" may be a hybrid between the two species.[7] Subspecies of M. primigenius, such as M. primigenius primigenius, M. primigenius jatzkovi, and M. primigenius fraasi have been proposed.[8] The St. Paul Island and Wrangel island populations were originally considered dwarf varieties, much smaller than the original Pleistocene woolly mammoth, the latter was even described as a new subspoecies, M. p. vrangeliensis. However after closer investigation, Wrangel mammoths are no longer considered to be dwarfs.[9][10] The Wrangel mammoths were isolated for 5000 years, but only experienced a limited loss of genetic variation

Woolly mammoths had a number of adaptations to the cold, most notably the layer of fur, which covered all parts of the body. The coat consisted of an outer layer of long, coarse "guard hair", which was 30 cms on the upper part of the body, up to 90s cms in length on the flanks and underside, and 0.5 mm in diameter, as well as a denser inner layer of shorter, slightly curly underwool, up to 8 cms long and 0.05 mms in diameter. The hairs on the upper leg were up 38 cms long, and those of the feet were 15 cms long, reaching the toes. The hairs on the head was relatively short, but longer on the underside, and on the sides of the trunk. The tail was extended by coarse hairs up to 60 cms long, which were thicker than the guard hairs. It is likely the woolly mammoth moulted seasonally, and that the heaviest wool was shed during spring. Since mammoth carcasses were more likely to be preserved during autumn, it is possible that only the winter coat has been preserved in frozen specimens. The amount of pigmentation varied from hair to hair, and even within each hair.[17] They had numerous sebaceous glands in their skin, which secreted greasy fat into their hair which which improved its insulating qualities, repelled water, and would have given the fur a glossy sheen

The Woolly Mammoth Is An Extinct Animal

Some People In The Ice Age Hunted The Woolly Mammoth For Its Features Which Are :

1) Its Long Fur . Its Used For Warmth .

2) Its Tusks . Its Used For Weapons , And Useful

Material .

3) Its Insides Are Use For Food And Other Sorts Of Things .

While preserved woolly mammoth fur is orange-brown, this is believed to be an artefact due to the bleaching of pigment during burial. A 2006 study sequenced the Mc1r gene that influences hair colour in mammals from woolly mammoth bones. Two versions were found, a fully active (dominant) and a partially active (recessive) gene. In mammals, a partially active Mc1r gene results in red or yellow hair. Mammoths born with one copy of the active gene and one of the partially active gene would have had dark brown or black coats while those with two copies of the inactive gene would have had pale coats, possibly blond or ginger. Varying colours in mammals is usually a form of camouflage linked to survival.[19] A 2011 study showed that light individuals would had been very rare

Other adaptations to cold weather include the size of the ears, which were far smaller than those of modern elephants; they were about 38 cm (15 in) long and 18-28 cms across, and the ear of "Dima" was under 13 cms long. The small ears prevented heat loss and frost bite, and the tail was also short for this reason, only 36 cms long in the "Beresovka mamoth". The tail contained 21 vertebrae, whereas the tails of modern elephants contain 28-33. Their skin was no thicker than that of present-day elephants, between 1.25 and 2.5 cms. They had a layer of fat up to 10 cm (3.9 in) thick under the skin, which helped to insulate them and keep them warm. Woolly mammoths had a broad flap of skin under their tail which covered the anus, butit is unknown if this was for protection against cold, as the feature is also seen in modern elephants

Other characteristic features depicted in cave paintings include a large, high, single domed head, a sloping back with a high shoulder hump resulting from long spinous processes on the neck vertebrae. These features are were not present in juveniles, which had concave backs, but were acquired later in life. Another feature shown in cave paintings was confirmed by the discovery of a frozen specimen in 1924, an adult nicknamed the "Middle Kolyma mammoth", which was preserved a complete trunk tip. Unlike the trunk lobes of living elephants, the upper "finger" at the tip of the trunk had a long pointed lobe and was 10 cms long, while the lower "thumb" was 5 cms and was broader. The trunk of the six month old calf "Dima" was 76 cms, whereas the trunk of the adult "Liakhov mammoth" was 2 meters long. The well preserved foot of the "Yukagir mammoth" shows that the sole of the feet contained many crack that would had helped getting a grip on surfaces during locomotion. Like modern elephants, woolly mammoths walked on their toes and had large, fleshy pads behind them. Only few frozen specimens have preserved genitals, so the gender is usually determined through examination of the skeleton. Males were generally larger and had more robust skeletons and tusks. The best indication of sex is the size of the pelvic girdle, as the hole which functions as a birth canal in females is always wider in these than in males. The penis of the "Beresovka mammoth" was 86 cms long

Team

This prehistoric elephant lived between 1.8 Million Years ago and went extinct about 11 Thousand years ago.

It had a hump of fat behind its dome shaped head, giving it a sloping back appearance. Prehistoric cave paintings, in Spain and France, show what these extinct animals looked like. These ancient mammals ranged in North America, Europe and Asia.

This Ice Age Elephant ate grass, mosses, ferns and shrubs and used its huge curved tusks –up to 16ft. (5M) long- to scrape away snow to get to vegetation. This extinct Mammoth had tiny ears and a very short tail, due to the cold climate. They were thought to be related closest to the Indian Elephant.

Calculations

frozen remains have been found with soft tissues intact in the northern parts of Siberia

Timeline

Since many remains of each species of mammoth are known from several localities, it is possible to reconstruct the evolutionary history of the genus through morphological studies. Mammoth species can be identified from the number of enamel ridges on their molars; the primitive species had few ridges, and the amount increased gradually as new species evolved and replaced the former ones. At the same time, the crowns of the teeth became longer, and the skulls become higher from top to bottom and shorter from the back to the front over time to accommodate this. Individuals and populations showing transitional morphologies between each of the species are known, and primitive and derived species coexisted as well until the former disappeared. The different species and their intermediate forms can therefore be termed "chronospecies". Many intermediate subspecies have also been proposed, but their validity is uncertain; they can be considered either primitive forms of a derived species, or derived forms of a primitive species

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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. Publishing his findings in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, Sloane became the first to recognise that the remains did not belong to giants or behemoths, but rather to elephants.[2] Sloane turned to another biblical explanation for the presence of elephants in the Arctic: he believed they had been buried during the biblical Great Flood, and that Siberia had previously been tropical prior to a drastic climate change. Others interpreted Sloane's conclusion slightly differently, arguing the flood had carried elephants from the tropics to the arctic.[3] Sloane's paper was based on travellers' descriptions and a few scattered bones collected in Siberia and Britain. While he discussed the question of whether or not the mammoth was an elephant, he drew no conclusions. In 1738, Johann Philipp Breyne argued that mammoth fossils represented some kind of elephant, but could not explain why a tropical animal would be found in such a cold area as Siberia; he suggested that they might have been transported there by Noah's flood.[4]

The first known members of the genus Mammuthus are the African species M. subplanifrons from the Pliocene and M. africanavus from the Pleistocene. The former is thought to be the ancestor of later forms. Mammoths entered Europe around 3 million years ago, the earliest known type has been named M. rumanus, which spread across Europe and China. Only its molars are known, which show it had 8-10 enamel ridges. A population evolved 12-14 ridges and split off from and replaced the earlier type, becoming M. meridionalis. In turn, this species was replaced by the steppe mammoth, M. trogontherii, with 18-20 ridges, which evolved in East Asia ca. 1 million years ago. Mammoths derived from M. trogontherii evolved molars with 26 ridges 200.000 years ago in Siberia, and became the woolly mammoth, M. primigenius.[6]

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