Wooly mammoth: description, behavior, distribution and extinction

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:44

In the world-famous game World of Warcraft, there is a certain artifact called "Reins of the Woolly Mammoth". Its owner can summon a huge beast with thick fur and sharp tusks to help him. Its mere appearance plunges enemies into horror, and makes allies tremble with delight. But what is most striking is that the prototype of the terrifying beast was a very real creature that caused the dawn of mankind.

Guests from the distant past

The woolly mammoth is a close relative of modern elephants. However, one should not assume that these giants were the direct ancestors of the African giants. No, they really just had a common ancestor. Subsequently, this branch was divided into two completely different types. In particular, it is because of their differences that elephants were able to survive, leaving their relative far behind.

As for woolly mammoths, this species appeared about 200-300 thousand years ago. According to the research of paleontologists, Siberia was their homeland. Therefore, most of the finds that reveal the truth about their lives were made in this harshedge. True, at that time the climate here was not at all cold, but mild, temperate.

How can you judge someone who has been dead for a long time?

The woolly mammoth died out a long time ago. To be more precise, the last representative of this species died about 4 thousand years ago. Therefore, it is not surprising that many people are skeptical that scientists present them with a detailed description of this animal, as well as reveal the features of its behavior. After all, how can you judge a creature that has not been in the world for more than 4 thousand years?

Well, the truth is that the science of paleontology helps scientists. It allows them to look far into the past, based only on the remains of animals. As for woolly mammoths, there are quite a lot of similar paleontological finds in the arsenal of scientists. In addition, some of them are very well preserved.

For example, recently a woolly mammoth was found in Taimyr, frozen in a block of ice. According to scientists, he lay there for at least 30 thousand years. Thanks to the ice, the carcass of the animal did not decompose, which means that paleontologists received ideal samples of soft tissues, wool, and even undigested stomach contents. Thus, science was able to almost completely reveal all the secrets of extinct giants.

Wooly mammoth description

Many imagine mammoths as giants, like dark mountains moving across snow-covered plains. In reality thisthe animal did not have such an impressive size and only slightly exceeded modern elephants. For example, the largest woolly mammoth found by man was about 4 meters tall.

On average, these animals reached 2-2.5 meters in height, which is not so much. More importantly, the elephant's relatives weighed much more than he did. Judging by the structure of their bones, adults could reach a weight of 6-8 tons. Such parameters were due to the fact that mammoths had large reserves of subcutaneous fat, which saved them from the bitter cold.

Another important difference of this species was thick wool covering the entire body of the beast. Its length changed throughout the year, allowing the animal to adjust to the ambient temperature. But even in the summer, it hung in lumps from the sides of the mammoth and sometimes reached 90 cm in length. As for the color, this beast had a dark brown, and sometimes black coat color.

It is curious that, unlike elephants, the woolly mammoth had small ears. This means that the modern representatives of this group acquired this gift of evolution after the extinction of their relatives. Also, the mammoths had a medium-sized trunk, which seemed quite dwarfed against the background of large curved tusks.

Mammoth spread

As mentioned earlier, the homeland of the woolly mammoth is Siberia. However, soon, driven by glaciers, they migrated deep into the continent. Due to this, this species has filled most of the expanses of Eurasia, and also moved to North America.

The remains of mammoths are found even inChina, Spain and Mexico. This suggests that the harsh winter has reached even these seemingly hot regions. True, scientists believe that relatives of elephants lived here for a relatively short time, as the returning heat again drove them to their native lands.

Features of the behavior of the woolly mammoth

Today, researchers are confident that modern elephants can help them unravel the mystery of mammoth behavior. Indeed, despite the fact that these two species have a lot of differences, they nevertheless descended from one common ancestor. Consequently, their habits and way of life are largely similar, as they stretch their roots deep into the evolutionary tree.

So what's so special about the woolly mammoth? The behavior of this animal, to be honest, can be explained in a few sentences. First, its main purpose was food. Because of its size, he had to constantly look for sources of food for himself, and therefore rarely remained in one place. Secondly, within the pack there was a rigid hierarchy based on matriarchy. Moreover, often a group of mammoths consisted only of children and females, and males preferred to lead a solitary lifestyle.

Another interesting hypothesis scientists put forward, based on the morphology of the animal. All mammoths had relatively short trunks, hence they could not get food with them from tall trees. Therefore, it is highly probable that these animals mainly inhabited the steppes and meadows and only occasionally entered the forest. By the way, this hypothesis is confirmed by the contents of the stomachs.those mammoths that scientists have found among the endless glaciers of Siberia.

Natural enemies of mammoths

For a long time, mammoths lived without fear, as they had an impressive size, which scared away all small predators. However, harsh winters have led to the fact that the animals have become more bloodthirsty and fearless. And the most dangerous in those days were wolves, because they attacked their prey in an organized pack. True, even they did not dare to rush at a large animal, and yet hungry predators tracked down the cubs that had strayed from the flock.

However, a much more terrible hunter was a man. Endowed with intelligence, he was able to defeat any opponent, including such a large one. And large reserves of meat and fat forced our ancestors to attack these peaceful animals more and more often.

The reasons for the disappearance of mammoths

The extinction of the woolly mammoth is a topic that has been discussed for more than one year, and even more than a dozen years. Several hypotheses were put forward - from global temperature changes to anthropogenic factors. Because the animals died too quickly, scientists have discarded all theories associated with gradual climate change or human genocide. Most likely, the reason for the disappearance of this species was a widespread disease caused by a lack of calcium in the diet of animals (this is evidenced by the findings of paleontologists). This could happen due to the fact that the level of groundwater dropped sharply and they stopped bringing the necessary water to the surface.the amount of minerals. But there are also supporters of a different version, according to which the giants were killed by a powerful cataclysm - a sharp cooling as a result of the displacement of the earth's crust.

As a result, almost all mammoths died out about 10 thousand years ago. The exception was a small population of animals that lived on Wrangel Island. Here they lived for several thousand years longer than their relatives. However, the limited territory has led to the fact that the gene pool of the animal has completely exhausted itself due to closely related ties.