The Prehistoric Proboscidean Thread- Elephants, mammoths, mastodonts etc

Galvasean

Under 4 feet tall. Awesome!
Not wolly, but still a very cool find.

"When most people think of mammoths, they think of woolly mammoths," Herridge said. "We think this dwarf was more adapted to warmer environments, more in appearance like modern African or Asian elephants, with a sparse covering of hair, although they would have had curvy tusks like all mammoths."

Mammuthus creticusis the first evidence for extreme island dwarfism in mammoths. It would have been comparable in size to the smallest dwarf elephant known, the extinct species Palaeoloxodon falconeri from Sicily and Malta, which stood only about 3 feet 5 inches (1.04 m) high at the shoulder and weighed only approximately 525 lbs. (238 kg).

The fossils suggest this dwarf mammoth was descended from one of the first mammoth species to arrive in Europe from Africa, Mammuthus rumanus or Mammuthus meridionalis. As such, the researchers suggest dwarf mammoths may have evolved much earlier than previously thought — as far back as 3.5 million years ago.

Full article here.


Image by Victor Leshyk

Nice mowhawk though..

Kess73

Given that all they have found is one leg bone and some teeth, I wonder could it simply be an infant that they found and not a fully grown dwarf mammoth.

Adam Khor

Speaking of warmth-adapted mammoths, am I the only one who wonders how many of them had maybe large ears like African elephants? They are always depicted with small Indian elephant-like ears. There is any way to actually know if they had small or large ears from the bones alone?

dlofnep

I want one. I envisage us riding off into the sunset together.

Adam Khor

dlofnep wrote: »

I want one. I envisage us riding off into the sunset together.

You mean you riding the mammoth, the mammoth riding you, or you and the mammoth riding a horse? Cuz if it's the latter I would hate to be the horse XD

dlofnep

We'd be strolling side by side, holding hands/trunks. It would be beautiful.

Adam Khor

As long as it didn´t sneeze...

TheBegotten

Coolest forum ever. Imagine if they survived and we had mammoth farms and petting zoos. It would give a new meaning to "mammoth burgers."

Adam Khor

TheBegotten wrote: »

Coolest forum ever. Imagine if they survived and we had mammoth farms and petting zoos. It would give a new meaning to "mammoth burgers."

Eating them would probably be taboo in the western world as well as illegal, considering how elephants are finally being recognized as emotionally complex, intelligent beings. (Mammoths being a kind of elephant, it is to be assumed that they would be the same...)

Rubecula

All the same imagine one of them on your plate dripping with gravy and mushy peas.

Adam Khor

Nasty :O

Galvasean

TheBegotten wrote: »

Coolest forum ever.

No arguments here :cool:

Adam Khor

Ok, not a "mammoth mine", but at least five mammoths found IN a mine:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/20/mammoth-mine-prehistoric-beasts-serbian-mine_n_1611860.html

Adam Khor

http://www.foxnews.com/science/2012/11/07/wooly-mammoth-skeleton-found-in-france/

Adam Khor

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=produce-woolly-mammoth-stem-cells

Frank Lee Midere

Are mammoths social animals? If so might be cruel.

Adam Khor

Yes, they were social animals, like living elephants.

Frank Lee Midere

Ok. So this can't work.

Capt'n Midnight

Frank Lee Midere wrote: »

Are mammoths social animals? If so might be cruel.

Just use elephants as foster parents until you can clone some more

Adam Khor

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2446532/Prehistoric-elephant-giant-spoonbill-instead-trunk-built-scythe-used-cut-food.html

Galvasean

That's pretty badass.

Adam Khor

http://news.yahoo.com/mom-son-wooly-mammoth-tusks-22-years-apart-145006402.html

Rubecula

I am sure I saw this elsewhere too but I can't remember where or when. Thanks for posting Adam.

Adam Khor

http://siberiantimes.com/science/casestudy/news/n0207-mammoth-could-be-brought-back-to-life-in-siberian-reserve/

manjosh

Last time i checked cloning of little animal like rat for example hasn't been that succesful. How do they plan on going around something as large as a mammoth.
"thinking cap on" you just can't stop loving sciences.

Adam Khor

You must have checked a long time ago- all sorts of animals from fruit flies to horses, cattle, wolves and even an extinct kind of ibex have been cloned by now- although it is true that very few of them have lived long (usually they have health issues).

I don´t know if the size of the animal is a factor.

recedite

This is a peculiar site. 16 sq km is quite small for a wildlife reserve expected to hold large animals; say an area of just 4Km by 4km.
On the other hand they have literally fenced it in with fenceposts, like a farm, so that is a lot of fencing. But some of the introduced deer have already jumped the fence and gone AWOL. Chunky animals like bison, musk ox (and mammoth) would walk through it.
Only the horses seem to remain there. Maybe the intention is for this area to be just the nucleus, and only to fence in the horses while the ecosystem changes from tundra to steppe. Then introduce the larger animals and allow them to roam freely in a larger unfenced area.
http://www.pleistocenepark.ru/en/

Fathom

Would comparative studies suggest free range requirements? Elephants?

recedite

I think African savannah elephants are more nomadic than territorial, but according to this African forest elephants roam about within a territory of up to 2000 square Km (772 sq miles)
So I would guess that mammoths formerly had the run of vast areas of the northern latitudes, almost unhindered by barriers.

I suspect that the owners of this park would prefer to keep their animals within a smallish area, for viewing purposes, even if that requires some supplementary feeding of the animals. In other words, something in between a theme park and a wildlife reserve. I suppose the clue is in the name.
A sequel to Jurassic Park?

Manach

recedite wrote: »

A sequel to Jurassic Park?

... what could possibly go wrong

Fathom

recedite wrote: »

A sequel to Jurassic Park?

Film released yesterday. Imagine?