Where were mammoths found? Woolly mammoth, how much does a mammoth weigh. Many mammoth bodies are preserved in the permafrost

During the ice age, very unusual species of animals lived in Siberia. Many of them are no longer on Earth. The largest of them was the mammoth. The largest individuals reached 4-4.5 meters in height, and their tusks up to 3.5 meters long weighed 110-130 kilograms. Fossil remains of mammoths were found in the northern regions of Europe, Asia, America and a little to the south - at the latitude of the Caspian Sea and Lake Baikal. The death and burial of mammoths occurred 44-26 thousand years ago, as evidenced by radiocarbon dating and the results of palynological analysis of numerous burials of their remains.

A truly inexhaustible "warehouse" of mammoth bones is Siberia. Giant Mammoth Cemetery - New Siberian Islands. In the last century, from 8 to 20 tons of elephant tusks were mined there annually. According to old commercial reports, before the First World War, the export of tusks from North-Eastern Siberia was 32 tons per year, which corresponds to about 220 pairs of tusks.

It is believed that over 200 years, tusks from about 50 thousand mammoths were taken out of Siberia. A kilogram of a good tusk goes abroad for $100; For a bare mammoth skeleton, Japanese firms are now offering from 150 to 300 thousand dollars. The Magadan baby mammoth, when sent to a trade show in London in 1979, was insured for 10 million rubles. In a scientific sense, he had no price at all ...

In 1914, on Bolshoi Lyakhovsky Island (Novosibirsk Islands), industrialist Konstantin Vollosovich dug up a whole, well-preserved skeleton of a mammoth. He offered the Russian Academy of Sciences to buy the find from him. He was refused, referring (as always) to lack of money: an expedition to find another mammoth had just been paid.
Count Stenbock-Fermor paid Vollosovich's expenses and donated his acquisition to France. For a whole skeleton and four feet in leather and meat, pieces of the skin, the donor received the Order of the Legion of Honor. Thus, the only well-preserved mammoth exhibit appeared outside of Russia.

Since the remains of mammoths are in giant natural refrigerators - in the layers of the so-called permafrost, they have come down to us in good condition. Scientists do not deal with individual fossils or several bones of skeletons, but can even study the blood, muscles, hair of these animals and also determine what they ate. The most famous specimen has a stomach and a mouth full of grass and branches! They say that in Siberia there are still surviving individuals of woolly elephants ...

The unanimous opinion of experts is as follows: in reality, thousands of living individuals are needed to preserve the population. They would not go unnoticed… However, there are other reports.

There is a legend that in 1581 the warriors of the famous conqueror of Siberia Yermak saw huge hairy elephants in the dense taiga. Experts are still at a loss: who did the glorious vigilantes see? After all, ordinary elephants were already known in those days: they were found at the courts of governors and in the royal menagerie. Since then, the legend of living mammoths has lived ...

In 1962, a Yakut hunter told geologist Vladimir Pushkarev that before the revolution, hunters had repeatedly seen huge hairy animals “with a big nose and fangs.” Ten years ago, this hunter himself discovered traces unknown to him "the size of a basin." There is a story of two Russian hunters who in 1920 met the footprints of a giant beast at the edge of the forest. This happened between the Chistaya and Tasa rivers (the area between the Ob and the Yenisei). Oval in shape, the footprints were about 70 cm long and about 40 cm wide. The creature placed its front legs four meters from its hind legs.

The stunned hunters followed the tracks and a few days later they met two monsters. They followed the giants from a distance of about three hundred meters. The animals had curved white tusks, brown coloration, and long hair. A sort of elephants in fur coats. They moved slowly. One of the last press reports that Russian geologists saw live mammoths in Siberia appeared in 1978. “It was the summer of 1978,” recalls the foreman of the miners S. I. Belyaev, “our artel was washing gold on one of the nameless tributaries of the Indigirka River. At the height of the season, an interesting incident occurred. In the predawn hour, when the sun had not yet risen, a dull clatter was suddenly heard near the parking lot. The dream of prospectors is a bit. Jumping to their feet, they stared at each other in surprise with a mute question: “What is this?” As if in response, a splash of water was heard from the river. We, seizing our guns, began to stealthily make our way in that direction. As we rounded the rocky outcropping, an incredible scene presented itself to our eyes. In the shallow waters of the river there were about a dozen God knows where the mammoths came from. Huge, shaggy animals slowly drank the cold water. For about half an hour we looked at these fabulous giants as if spellbound. And those, having quenched their thirst, decorously, one after another, went deep into the forest thicket ... ".

Suddenly, by some miracle, these ancient animals, despite everything, in hidden deserted places, are still alive to this day?

“A mammoth by its liking is a meek and peaceful animal, and affectionate towards people. When meeting with a person, the mammoth not only does not attack him, but even clings and fawns over the person ”(from the notes of the Tobolsk local historian P. Gorodtsov, XIX century).

Among the animals that have disappeared before the eyes of man, the mammoth occupies a special place. And the point here is not that this is the largest land mammal that people have encountered. It is still not completely clear why this Siberian giant died so unexpectedly. Scientists do not hesitate to classify the mammoth as a long-extinct animal. And it's easy to understand them. None of the biologists has yet managed to bring back the skin of a “freshly slaughtered” animal from the northern expeditions. Therefore, it does not exist. For scientists, the only question is, as a result of what cataclysms did this huge northern elephant disappear from the face of the earth, roaming the vast expanses of Siberia 10-15 thousand years ago?

If you look through the old history books, you can find out that, it turns out, the people of the Stone Age became the perpetrators of the extinction of this giant. At one time, a hypothesis was spread about the amazing dexterity of primitive hunters, who specialized exclusively in eating mammoths. They drove this powerful beast into traps and ruthlessly destroyed it.

The proof of this assumption was the fact that mammoth bones were found in almost all ancient sites. Sometimes they even dug up the huts of ancient people, made from the skulls and tusks of the poor fellow. True, even looking at the magnificent fresco on the wall of the Historical Museum, depicting the ease with which northern elephants clog with large stones, one can hardly believe in the luck of such a hunt. But at the end of the twentieth century, the ancient hunters were rehabilitated. This was done by academician Nikolai Shilo. He put forward a theory explaining the death of not only mammoths, but also other inhabitants of the North: the Arctic yak, saiga and woolly rhinoceros. 10,000 years ago, North America and most of Eurasia were a single continent, welded together by a layer of floating ice, covered by so-called loess - dust particles. Under a cloudless sky and a never-setting sun, the loess was completely covered with dense grass. Severe winters with little snow did not prevent mammoths from getting frozen grass in large quantities, and long thick hair, thick undercoat and fat reserves helped them cope even with severe frosts.

But now the climate has changed - it has become more humid. The mainland on floating ice disappeared. The thin crust of loess was washed away by summer rains, and the outskirts of Siberia turned from northern steppes into swampy marshy tundra. Mammoths turned out to be not adapted to the humid climate: they fell into swamps, their warm undercoat got wet in the rain, a thick layer of snow that fell in winter did not allow access to the meager tundra vegetation. Therefore, mammoths simply physically could not live up to our time.

But here's what's weird. As if to spite scientists, fresh remains of mammoths continue to be found in Siberia.

In 1977, a perfectly preserved seven-month-old mammoth was discovered on the Krigili River. A little later, in the Magadan region, they found the Enmynville mammoth, more precisely, its one hind leg. But what was that foot! It was remarkable for its amazing freshness and did not retain a trace of decay. These remains allowed scientists L. Gorbachev and S. Zadalsky from the Institute of Biological Problems of the North to study in detail not only the hairline of the mammoth, but also the structural features of the skin, even the content of sweat and sebaceous glands. And it turned out that mammoths had a powerful hairline, abundantly lubricated with fat, so that climate change could not lead to the complete destruction of these animals.

The change of food also could not be fatal for the "northern elephant". Back in 1901, on the Berezovka River, a tributary of the Kolyma, a mammoth corpse was found, studied in detail by the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. In the stomach of the animal, scientists found the remains of plants characteristic of modern floodplain meadows of the lower reaches of the Lena River.

New information allows us to take more seriously the cases of people meeting with mammoths. These meetings started a long time ago. Travelers from many countries who visited Muscovy and Siberia, not even suspecting the theories of modern biologists, stubbornly wrote about the existence of mammoths. For example, the Chinese geographer Sima Qian in his historical notes (188-155 BC) writes: "... among the animals there are ... huge wild boars, northern elephants in bristles and northern rhinos." Herberstein, the ambassador of the Austrian Emperor Sigismund, who visited Russia in the middle of the 16th century, wrote in his “Notes on Muscovy”: “In Siberia ... there is a great variety of birds and various animals, such as, for example, sables, martens, beavers, ermines, squirrels ... In addition, the weight. In the same way, polar bears, hares ... "

The Tobolsk local historian P. Gorodtsov tells about the mysterious beast “weight” in the essay “A Trip to the Salym Territory”, published in 1911. It turns out that the Kolyma Khanty were familiar with the strange animal "all". This "monster" was covered with thick, long hair and had horns. Sometimes the "vesi" started such a fuss among themselves that the ice on the lake broke with a terrible roar.

Here is another very interesting piece of evidence. During the famous campaign of Ermak in Siberia in the dense taiga, his soldiers saw huge hairy elephants. Until now, experts are at a loss: who did the vigilantes meet? After all, real elephants were already known in Russia at that time. They were kept not only in the royal menagerie, but also at the courts of some governors.

Now let's turn to another layer of information - to the legends preserved by the locals. The Ob Ugrians, the Siberian Tatars were sure of the existence of the northern giant and described him in detail to P. Gorodtsov exactly as stated in the quotation at the beginning of the article.

This "extinct" giant was also met in the twentieth century. Western Siberia. Small Lake Leusha. After the celebration of Trinity Day, boys and girls returned in wooden boats, an accordion played. And suddenly, 300 meters from them, a huge hairy carcass rises from the water. One of the men shouted: "Mammoth!" The boats huddled together, and people watched with fear as the three-meter carcass that appeared above the water swayed on the waves for several moments. Then the hairy body dived and disappeared into the abyss.

There are many such testimonies. For example, Maya Bykova, a well-known researcher of extinct animals, spoke about a pilot who saw a mammoth in Yakutia in the 1940s. Moreover, the latter also plunged into the water and sailed away along the lake surface.

Not only in Siberia you can meet a mammoth. In 1899, an article about a meeting with a mammoth in Alaska was published in the American magazine "McClures Magazine". When its author, H. Tukman, traveled in 1890 along the St. Michael and Yukon rivers, he lived for a long time in one small Indian tribe and heard many interesting stories there from the old Indian Joe. One day Joe saw a picture of an elephant in a book. He became excited and said that he met this animal on the Porcupine River. Here in the mountains there was a country that the Indians called Ti-Kai-Koya (the footprint of the devil). Joe and his son went to shoot beavers. After a long journey through the mountains, they came to a vast, tree-covered valley with a large lake in the middle. In two days, the Indians made a raft and crossed a lake as long as a river. It was there that Joe saw a huge animal resembling an elephant: “He poured water on himself from his long nose, and in front of his head stuck out two teeth each ten guns long, bent and sparkling white in the sun. Its wool was black and sparkling and hung on its sides like bunches of weeds on the branches after the flood ... But then it lay down in the water, and the waves that ran through the reeds reached our armpits, such was a splash.

And yet where could such huge animals hide? Let's try to figure it out. The climate in Siberia has changed. You will not find food in the coniferous taiga. Another thing is along river valleys or near lakes. True, rich water meadows are replaced here by impenetrable swamps, and it is most convenient to get close to them by water. And what prevents a mammoth from doing this? Why shouldn't he switch to an amphibian lifestyle? He should be able to swim, and not bad. Here we can rely not only on legends, but also on scientific facts. As you know, the closest relatives of mammoths are elephants. And just recently it turned out that these giants are excellent swimmers. They not only love to swim in shallow water, but also swim several tens of kilometers into the sea!

But if elephants not only love to swim, but also swim many kilometers in the sea, then why shouldn't mammoths be able to do this too? After all, they are the closest relatives of elephants. Who are their distant relatives? What do you think? The famous sea sirens are animals transformed in myths into sweet-voiced female mermaids. They evolved from terrestrial proboscis animals and retained features common to elephants: mammary mammary glands, change of molars throughout life and tusk-like incisors.

It turns out that not only sirens have elephant signs. Elephants also retained some of the properties characteristic of marine animals. More recently, biologists have discovered that they are able to emit infrasounds at a frequency below the sensitivity threshold of the human ear and perceive these sounds. Moreover, the organ of hearing in elephants is the vibrating frontal bones. Only marine animals, such as whales, have such abilities. For land animals, this is a unique property. Probably, in addition to this property, elephants and their relatives, mammoths, retained other qualities that facilitate their transition to an aquatic existence.

And one more argument in favor of the existence of a mammoth in the North. This is a description of the mysterious animals that live in the cold lakes of Siberia. The first to see a strange animal living in the Yakut lake Labynkyr was the geologist Viktor Tverdokhlebov. On July 30, 1953, he was lucky in a way that none of the explorers of the unknown had been lucky for almost half a century. Being on a plateau that rose on the surface of the lake, Victor observed "something" that barely rose above the surface of the water. From the dark gray carcass of the animal, which was swimming towards the shore with heavy throws, large waves diverged in a triangle.

The only question is, what did the geologist see? Most researchers of the unknown are sure that it was one of the varieties of waterfowl pangolins that somehow survived to our time in some incomprehensible way and for some reason chose the icy waters of the lake, where reptiles, as they say, physiologically could not live. Recently, the MAI Kosmopoisk group visited the lake. Members of the group saw muddy, rippling footprints on the water. On the shore, ice stalactites were discovered, formed as a result of the runoff of water from a drying animal, one and a half meters wide and five meters long. Imagine for a moment a crocodile with icicles falling from it! Yes, he, the poor fellow, having got into such climatic conditions, would have turned into an ice log in twenty minutes. But here's what's remarkable. In stories about the extraordinary inhabitants of the lakes, a similar description often slips: a long, flexible neck, a body towering above the water. But maybe, in fact, it was not the long neck and body of a reptile plesiosaur, but a highly raised trunk and a mammoth head behind it?

So, the mammoth that disappeared ten thousand years ago after another sharp change in climate may not have disappeared at all, but, as Vladimir Vysotsky sings in one of his songs: "... dived and lay down on the ground." He just wanted to survive. And, of course, he does not at all strive to be “tracked” and let him go for meat.

A message about mammoths Grade 5 will briefly talk about the giant animals that inhabited our planet during the glaciation period. Also, a report on mammoths can be used while preparing for a lesson or writing an essay on a given topic.

A short message about mammoths

Mammoths(or they were also called northern woolly elephants) is an extinct group of animals that lived on our planet a very long time ago, during a period of total cooling, about 1.6 million years ago.

The word "mammoth" is of Tatar origin: the term "mamma" means "earth". It is likely that this origin is due to the fact that from time immemorial people have found the surviving bones of giants in the earth. For example, the ancient inhabitants of the North thought that mammoths lived underground like moles.

Appearance of mammoths

The main species of these giant animals rarely exceeded modern elephants in size. Thus, the North American subspecies of mammoths reached a height of 5 m with a weight of 12 tons. And dwarf species of mammoths were no higher than 2 m with a weight of up to 900 kg. Unlike elephants, mammoths had a massive body, short legs, long curved tusks and long hair. In winter, animals obtained food for themselves with tusks, picking it out from under the thickness of the snow. The molars had numerous, thin dentin-enamel plates that helped to chew coarse plant food.

Where did mammoths live?

Mammoths lived in Europe, Asia, Africa and North America. Paleontological excavations of scientists have shown that the animals led a nomadic lifestyle and constantly moved from one place to another, moving in the direction of the drift of glaciers. In Europe, during severe snowy winters, mammoths roamed the territory of the modern Crimean peninsula and the Mediterranean coast. They inhabited cold, little snow-covered and dry steppes.

What did mammoths eat?

Since mammoths lived during the ice age, their diet was sparse vegetation. When examining the found animals, the remains of larch and pine twigs, leaves of wild cumin and sedge, fir cones, flowers and moss were found in their stomach.

Why did mammoths become extinct?

Paleontologists believe that man became the reason for the disappearance of mammoths. They were the first creatures to have such a sad fate. The body of the giants was covered with thick, long and warm hair, which, most likely, attracted the ancient man, who was looking for a way to warm himself in the cold and insulate his home. Also, people hunted them because of the tasty, fatty and nutritious meat. Therefore, living mammoths were seen only by primitive people, who caused the death of these animals.

• Modern naturalists were lucky enough to study these animals thanks to paleontological excavations, during which it was possible to find not only animal skeletons, but also whole frozen carcasses. So, in 1901, the so-called Berezovsky mammoth was discovered. His effigy is kept in the Zoological Museum of St. Petersburg. Its body is covered with wool, 35 cm long. Under it, scientists found a soft and warm undercoat, subcutaneous fat, which was located on the shoulders. The mammoth's stomach contained the remains of undigested food.
• In 1977, at the mouth of the Siberian river Dima, a small mammoth was found, whose age is 44 thousand years.
• Mammoths had a hump on their backs, like camels, where they accumulated fat reserves.
• Every day, the mammoth needed 180 kg of food to maintain health. An African elephant, for example, eats 300 kg of food.
• The ears of the giants were smaller than those of modern elephants. This is due to the cold climate.
• The mammoth, between 30,000 and 12,000 years ago, was the most popular object of Neolithic artists. He was depicted on the rocks in the caves of Western Europe. For example, rock paintings with mammoths can be seen in France in the Rufignac cave.

We hope that the report on mammoths helped to learn about the first living creatures, the cause of the disappearance of which was a man. And you can leave a short story about mammoths through the comment form below.

Many prehistoric animals arouse burning curiosity among our contemporaries. Take, for example, mammoths, whose images flash on the pages of zoology textbooks and television screens. Were they the progenitors of the current representatives of the world of fauna, and for what reason did their extinction occur? Answers to these questions excite many to this day. We will try to analyze how a mammoth differs from an elephant.

Definitions

Mammoth- an extinct species of mammals belonging to the elephant family and living in the Quaternary period. They were distributed on the territory of modern Europe, Asia, Africa and North America. Numerous bones of these animals have been found in the sites of ancient people. In Alaska and Siberia, there are known cases of the discovery of the corpses of mammoths, preserved due to centuries of stay in the permafrost. Most representatives of the species died out about 10 thousand years ago during the Vistula ice age.

Elephant- a representative of the family of mammals of the proboscis order. It is the largest land animal. The life expectancy of an elephant is equal to that of a human and reaches an average of 70 years. This is the only representative of the fauna world that cannot jump. Surprisingly, such a large and clumsy animal is able to develop impressive speed when running (about 30 km / h). In addition, elephants are very good swimmers. They can cover distances of tens of kilometers on water. At the same time, animals do not need long sleep - four hours of rest per day is enough for them.

Comparison

Let's start with the fact that the average height of a prehistoric animal was about 2 meters, and the weight reached 900 kg. These indicators are quite comparable with the parameters of modern elephants. However, there were subspecies of mammoths about 4-6 meters tall and weighing up to 12 tons. The body, head and trunk of the animal were covered with dense wool of a light brown or yellowish-brown hue. The magnificently developed sebaceous glands of a mammal increased the thermal insulation properties of its fur. The 8-10 cm subcutaneous fat layer also perfectly protected the beast from the cold. On the large pointed head of a mammoth, huge curved tusks flaunted, the length of which sometimes reached 4 meters. It is believed that they were used not only for reasons of self-defense, but also in order to get food. With their help, animals tore off the bark from trees, dug up food under a thick layer of ice, etc.

Another difference between a mammoth and an elephant is the size of the ears. In extinct animals, they were small (about 30 cm long) and tightly pressed to the head. Whereas the elephant's ears are protruding to the side. Their average length is 180 cm. It is also worth noting that the mammoth's trunk and tail were much shorter than those of an elephant. On the back of a prehistoric animal there was a hump in which fat reserves accumulated. High mammoth teeth with a large number of thin dentin-enamel plates were adapted for chewing coarse plant food. The feet of the animals had a very thick (practically horn-like) sole, up to 50 cm in diameter. The feet of their modern relatives are particularly sensitive. Thanks to the thick “pillows” located on them, they move almost silently.

A more complete answer to the question, what is the difference between a mammoth and an elephant, will help to find a comparative table.

Woolly mammoths were closely related genetically to today's Asian elephants. They looked very much like their modern day cousins, except for one big difference. They were covered with a thick coat of brown color, such a thick coat helped to keep the body warm on the cold Arctic plains. Even the ears of these animals were covered with thick fur.

According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), woolly mammoths grew to about 13 feet (4 meters) tall and weighed up to 6 tons (5.44 metric tons). According to National Geographic, the hair on some parts of the body could reach up to 3 feet (1 m) in length. The main types of mammoths did not exceed modern elephants in size, but at the same time, a subspecies called Mammuthus imperator, which lived in North America, reached a height of 5 meters and a mass of 12 tons, and dwarf species Mammuthus exilis and Mammuthus lamarmorae did not exceed 2 meters in height and gained weight not more than 900 kg.

Their huge curved tusks may have been used for fighting. Mammoths also may have used them to dig up shrubs, grasses, roots, and other small plants from under the snow.

You will be interested to know: in Siberia, a very well-preserved corpse of a female mammoth (who was given the name Lyuba) was found. After conducting a CT scan, scientists found out that the baby died after getting stuck in a swamp more than 40,000 years ago.

Although woolly mammoths became extinct about 10,000 years ago, people know very little about them, due to the fact that these animals lived in places very inaccessible to humans. Many corpses of woolly mammoths have been preserved in the permafrost of the Arctic. When the ice around the banks of ancient rivers and streams cracked, very often the corpses of long-dead mammoths were found, which looked almost the same as at the time of their death.

For example, in 2007, a pair of mummified mammoths was found in Siberia. The bodies were so well preserved that computed tomography revealed the cause of death: they, like the mammoth Lyuba, choked with mud 40,000 years ago. The mud was like a thick dough that blocked their windpipes, said study co-author Daniel Fisher, director of the University of Michigan Museum of Paleontology.

Botanist Mikhail Ivanovich Adams restored the first fossilized skeleton of a Siberian woolly mammoth in 1806. Since then, more than a dozen soft tissue samples have been found.

Habitat

Although woolly mammoths are known for living in the cold lands of the Arctic, they actually arrived there from much warmer places. A study by a team from the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Canada, found that the ancestors of mammoths and Asian elephants appeared in Africa approximately 6.7 million to 7 million years ago. Presumably, they lived there for about 4 million years, and then migrated to Southern Europe.

About a million years passed and they spread even further into Asia as far as Siberia and the northern plains of Canada. It was at this time that a catastrophe occurred on the planet that caused a global "Ice Age" - said Kevin Campbell from a research group at the University of Manitoba.

Woolly mammoths were able to survive in a much colder climate, scientists say, thanks to a sudden genetic mutation that may have changed the way blood oxygen is transported throughout the body, so the body retains more heat.

Mammoth is a mystery that has been exciting the curiosity of researchers for more than two hundred years. What were these how they lived and why did they die out? All these questions still do not have exact answers. Some scientists blame hunger for their mass death, the second - the ice age, and others - ancient hunters who destroyed herds for meat, skins and tusks. There is no official version.

Who are mammoths

The ancient mammoth was a mammal that belonged to the elephant family. The main species had sizes comparable to those of their close relatives - elephants. Their weight often did not exceed 900 kg, growth did not go beyond 2 meters. However, there were also more "representative" varieties, whose weight reached 13 tons, and their height was 6 meters.

Mammoths differed from elephants in a bulkier body, short legs and long hair. A characteristic feature is large curved tusks, which were used by prehistoric animals to dig out food from under snowy heaps. They also had molars with a large number of dentin-enamel thin plates that served to process fibrous roughage.

Appearance

The structure of the skeleton, which the ancient mammoth possessed, in many ways resembles the structure of the Indian elephant living today. Of greatest interest are giant tusks, the length of which could reach up to 4 meters, weight - up to 100 kg. They were located in the upper jaw, grew forward and bent upwards, "parting" to the sides.

The tail and ears, tightly pressed to the skull, were small in size, there was a straight black bang on the head, and a hump stood out on the back. A large body with a slightly lowered back was based on stable legs-pillars. The feet had an almost horn-like (very thick) sole, reaching a diameter of 50 cm.

The coat had a light brown or yellowish-brown tint, the tail, legs and withers were decorated with noticeable black spots. Fur "skirt" fell from the sides, almost reaching the ground. The "clothing" of prehistoric animals was very warm.

Tusk

Mammoth is an animal whose tusk was unique not only for its increased strength, but also for its unique range of colors. The bones lay underground for several millennia, underwent mineralization. Their shades have found a wide range - from purple to snow-white. The darkening that occurred as a result of the work of nature increases the value of the tusk.

The tusks of prehistoric animals were not as perfect as the tools of elephants. They easily grinded, acquired cracks. It is believed that mammoths with their help obtained food for themselves - branches, tree bark. Sometimes the animals formed 4 tusks, the second pair was distinguished by subtlety, often fused with the main one.

Unique colors make mammoth tusks in demand in the production of elite caskets, snuff boxes, and chess sets. They are used to create gift figurines, ladies' jewelry, expensive weapons. Artificial reproduction of special colors is not possible, which is the reason for the high cost of products created on the basis of mammoth tusks. Real, of course, not fake.

Weekdays of mammoths

60 years is the average life expectancy of giants who lived on earth several millennia ago. Mammoth - it was mainly herbaceous plants, tree shoots, small shrubs, moss that served as food for him. The daily norm is about 250 kg of vegetation, which forced the animals to spend about 18 hours daily on food, constantly changing their location in search of fresh pastures.

Researchers are convinced that mammoths practiced a herd lifestyle, gathered in small groups. The standard group consisted of 9-10 adult representatives of the species, and calves were also present. As a rule, the role of the leader of the herd was assigned to the oldest female.

By the age of 10, the animals reached sexual maturity. Mature males at this time left the maternal herd, moving to a solitary existence.

Habitat

Modern research has established that mammoths, which appeared on earth about 4.8 million years ago, disappeared only about 4 thousand years ago, and not 9-10, as previously thought. These animals lived on the lands of North America, Europe, Africa and Asia. Bones of powerful animals, drawings and sculptures depicting them are often found at the sites of ancient inhabitants.

Mammoths on the territory of Russia were also distributed in large numbers, Siberia is especially famous for its interesting finds. A huge "cemetery" of these animals was discovered in Khanty-Mansiysk, even a monument was erected in their honor. By the way, it was in the lower reaches of the Lena that the remains of a mammoth were first (officially) found.

Mammoths in Russia, or rather, their remains, are still being discovered.

Causes of extinction

Until now, the history of mammoths has large gaps. In particular, this concerns the causes of their extinction. Various versions are being put forward. The original hypothesis was put forward by Jean Baptiste Lamarck. According to the scientist, the absolute extinction of a biological species is not possible, it only turns into another. However, the official descendants of mammoths have not yet been identified.

I do not agree with my colleague, blaming the death of mammoths on floods (or other global cataclysms that took place during the period of the disappearance of the population). He argues that the Earth often faced short-term catastrophes that completely exterminated a certain species.

Brocki, a paleontologist originally from Italy, believes that a certain period of existence is allotted to every living creature on the planet. The scientist compares the disappearance of entire species with the aging and death of the body, therefore, in his opinion, the mysterious history of mammoths has ended.

The most popular theory, which has many adherents in the scientific community, is climate. About 15-10 thousand years ago, in connection with the northern zone of the tundra-steppe became a swamp, the southern one was filled with coniferous forests. Herbs, which previously formed the basis of the diet of animals, were replaced by moss and branches, which, according to scientists, led to their extinction.

ancient hunters

How the first people hunted mammoths has not been exactly established so far. It was the hunters of those times who are often accused of exterminating large animals. The version is supported by products made from tusks and skins, which are constantly found in the sites of the inhabitants of ancient times.

However, modern research makes this assumption more and more doubtful. According to a number of scientists, people only finished off weak and sick representatives of the species, not hunting healthy ones. Bogdanov, the creator of the work "Secrets of the Lost Civilization", makes reasonable arguments in favor of the impossibility of hunting mammoths. He believes that it is simply impossible to break through the skin of these animals with the weapons that the inhabitants of the ancient Earth possessed.

Another strong argument is the sinewy tough meat, almost unsuitable for food.

Close relatives

Elefasprimigenius is the Latin name for mammoths. The name indicates their close relationship with elephants, as the translation sounds like "first-born elephant." There are even hypotheses that the mammoth is the progenitor of modern elephants, which were the result of evolution, adaptation to a warm climate.

A study by German scientists that compared the DNA of a mammoth and an elephant suggests that the Indian elephant and the mammoth are two branches that have been traced back to the African elephant for about 6 million years. The ancestor of this animal, as shown by modern discoveries, lived on Earth about 7 million years ago, which makes the version have the right to exist.

Known specimens

"The Last Mammoth" is a title given to baby Dimka, a six-month-old mammoth whose remains were found by workers in 1977 near Magadan. About 40 thousand years ago, this baby fell through the ice, which caused his mummification. This is by far the best surviving specimen that has been discovered by mankind. Dimka has become a source of valuable information for those involved in the study of an extinct species.

Equally famous is the mammoth Adams, who became the first full-fledged skeleton that was shown to the public. This happened back in 1808, since then the copy has been located in the Museum of the Academy of Sciences. The find belonged to the hunter Osip Shumakhov, who lived by collecting mammoth bones.

The Berezovsky mammoth has a similar history, it was also found by a tusk hunter on the banks of one of the rivers in Siberia. The conditions for the excavation of the remains could not be called favorable, the extraction was carried out in parts. The preserved mammoth bones became the basis for a giant skeleton, soft tissues became the object of study. Death overtook the animal at 55 years old.

Matilda, a female of a prehistoric species, was completely discovered by schoolchildren. An event happened in 1939, the remains were discovered on the banks of the Oesh River.

Revival is possible

Modern researchers do not cease to be interested in such a prehistoric animal as a mammoth. The significance of prehistoric finds for science is nothing more than the motivation underlying all attempts to resurrect it. So far, attempts to clone the extinct species have not yielded tangible results. This is due to the lack of material of the required quality. However, research in this area does not seem to stop. At the moment, scientists rely on the remains of a female found not so long ago. The specimen is valuable because it has preserved liquid blood.

Despite the failure of cloning, it is proved that the appearance of the ancient inhabitant of the Earth has been restored exactly, as well as his habits. Mammoths look exactly as they are presented on the pages of textbooks. The most interesting discovery is that the closer the period of residence of the discovered biological species to our time, the more fragile its skeleton is.