In 1978 Wooly Mammoth remains were found in Texas, since then over two dozen others have been found, including a herd that died approximately 65,000 years ago. Today the remains are still displayed in Texas, where they were found.
Wooly Mammoths are believed to be closely related to modern day elephants, their height ranging anywhere from six to thirteen feet and their weight reaching up to over eight tons. They were herbivore herd animals and their main predators were sabre tooth tigers and humans.
The first discovered wooly mammoth dates to before 1799, when the first description of the creatures became known. Since then wooly mammoths have been discovered all over the United States and in Eurasia. The most notable find being from Siberia (more below). Anybody and everybody has discovered wooly mammoth remains, including a twelve year old boy in Russia in 2012.
Fun facts:
- Their tusks can reach up to fifteen feet long.
- They are present in many cave paintings.
- They were not the only wooly mammals of this time period, there was also a wooly rhino.
- They weren’t the only mammoth species, nor the biggest.
- Scientists can discover the age of a mammoth from the rings on its tusks, much like tree ring dating.
- The last Wooly Mammoth went extinct 4,000 years ago.
- The last of the wooly mammoths lived in the arctic, many researchers believed that their extinction was caused by the sharp rise in temperature since they were adapted for the cold.
- It may be possible to clone Wooly Mammoths!
The best specimen for cloning a wooly mammoth was discovered in 2013 in Siberia, Harvard scientists are becoming closer and closer to reconstructing the DNA so it is a possibility that wooly mammoths will be brought back to life using the DNA of this specimen nicknamed Buttercup. While a complete copy of the DNA has not been found, researchers hope to splice it with elephant DNA. Although, the ethics of such actions remains hotly debated today.
Sources:
http://www.techtimes.com/articles/41552/20150324/scientists-may-be-inching-closer-and-closer-to-resurrecting-woolly-mammoth.htm
http://www.livescience.com/48769-woolly-mammoth-cloning.html
http://www.livescience.com/48769-woolly-mammoth-cloning.html
http://a-z-animals.com/animals/woolly-mammoth/
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/02/160203-mammoth-bones-displayed-in-texas-where-they-were-found/
I love how much I’ve learned in a single post! I think that many people, like myself and the others who have commented, don’t know much about wooly mammoths or other animals that have become extinct, because we don’t hear much about them since they’re not around anymore. I am surprised to hear that there were wooly rhinos and other mammoths that were bigger than this animal, because they seemed pretty big on Ice Age! The one thing that I did know, but am not sure where I stand about, is the cloning aspect. I don’t know if I’d be down to clone an animal, because as it would be informative and helpful in filling in the blanks about extinct animals, it seems a bit unnatural to me.
Wooly Mammoths were always those weird,interesting extinct species I would think about as a kid. I always used to think about how ancient they were, but in reality they aren’t actually all that old. Like you said, they existed with modern humans. One factoid that I always found interesting is that some of the Ancient Pyramids of Egypt existed at the same time that wooly Mammoths roamed.
Holy informative….I learned so much about Wooly Mammoths in this post. I never knew how interesting they were (like the fact about finding the age of the Mammoth by looking at its tusks). I believe this is the first time I’ve looked at your blog and I can confidently say that the blog’s concept is really interesting. It seems like many of us merely understand the fact that these animals exist. For example, I only knew that the Wooly Mammoth lived thousands of years ago and were commonly seen in arctic areas. But I didn’t know how long its tusks were, that humans were a common predator, and that their remains were discovered in 1799. Very interesting!