"MAMMOTH Cache" is part of our new series:
The 81 Series. This series will contain 81 caches, one
for each of the Difficulty/Terrain ratings (1/1, 1.5/1, 2/1,
1/1.5, 1/2, etc). Whether you are new to caching or old,
1,000 caches in or 10; this series is for you! Over the next
few months we will be placing caches all over the tri-state
of all difficult and terrain: puzzles, multis, traditionals -
everything you can think of. Many of the ideas already
created are completely original, and some will not be. The
one thing to be sure of is this: if you complete the series -
you will have the 81 and can then call yourself a
"well-rounded cacher".
(You can get your Matrix generated by GSAK's Stats macro or through
ItsNotAboutTheNumbers.
Simply input your My Finds query (premium member feature I
believe) and it does the rest.)
A mammoth is any species of the extinct genus Mammuthus. These
proboscideans are members of the elephant family and close
relatives of modern elephants. They were often equipped with long
curved tusks and, in northern species, a covering of long hair.
They lived from the Pliocene epoch from 4.8 million years ago to
around 4,500 years ago.
The woolly mammoth was the last species of the genus. Most
populations of the woolly mammoth in North America and Eurasia died
out at the end of the last Ice Age. Until recently it was generally
assumed, that the last woolly mammoths vanished from Europe and
Southern Siberia about 10,000 BC, but new findings show, that some
were still present here about 8,000 BC. Only slightly later the
woolly mammoths also disappeared from continental Northern Siberia.
Woolly mammoths as well as Columbian mammoths disappeared from the
North American continent at the end of the ice age. A small
population survived on St. Paul Island, Alaska, up until 6000 BC,
and the small mammoths of Wrangel Island became extinct only around
2000 BC.
A definitive explanation for their mass extinction is yet to be
agreed upon. About 12,000 years ago, warmer, wetter weather was
beginning to take hold. Rising sea levels swamped the coastal
regions. Forests replaced open woodlands and grasslands across the
continent. The Ice Age was ebbing. As their habitats disappeared,
so did the bison and the mammoth.
Whether the general mammoth population died out for climatic
reasons or due to overhunting by humans is controversial. Another
theory suggests that mammoths may have fallen victim to an
infectious disease. A combination of climate change and hunting by
humans is the most likely explanation for their extinction.
New data derived from studies done on living elephants (see Levy
2006) suggests that though human hunting may not have been the
primary cause for the mammoth's final extinction, human hunting was
likely a strong contributing factor. Homo erectus is known to
have
consumed mammoth meat as early as 1.8 million years ago (Levy 2006:
295).
However, the American Institute of Biological Sciences also notes
that bones of dead elephants, left on the ground and subsequently
trampled by other elephants, tend to bear marks resembling butchery
marks, which have previously been misinterpreted as such by
archaeologists.
The survival of the dwarf mammoths on Russia's Wrangel Island was
due to the fact that the island was very remote, and uninhabited in
the early Holocene period. The actual island was not discovered by
modern civilization until the 1820s by American whalers. A similar
dwarfing occurred with the Pygmy Mammoth on the outer Channel
Islands of California, but at an earlier period. Those animals were
very likely killed by early Paleo-Native Americans, and habitat
loss caused by a rising sea level that split the Santa Rosae into
the outer Channel Islands.
Thomas Jefferson, well-versed in the natural sciences,
nevertheless suggested to Lewis and Clark that they might find
mammoth fossils during their explorations of the American West.
It is a common misconception that mammoths were much larger than
modern elephants, an error that has led to "mammoth" being used as
an adjective meaning "very big". Certainly, the largest known
species, the Imperial Mammoth of California, reached heights of at
least 5 metres (16 feet) at the shoulder. Mammoths would probably
normally weigh in the region of 6 to 8 tonnes, but exceptionally
large males may have exceeded 12 tonnes. A 3.3 m. (11 ft.) long
mammoth tusk was discovered north of Lincoln, Illinois in 2005.
However, most species of mammoth were only about as large as a
modern Asian Elephant. Fossils of species of dwarf mammoth have
been found on the Californian Channel Islands (Mammuthus exilis)
and the Mediterranean island of Sardinia (Mammuthus
lamarmorae).
There was also a race of dwarf woolly mammoths on Wrangel Island,
north of Siberia, within the Arctic Circle.
Based on studies of their close relatives, the modern elephants,
mammoths probably had a gestation period of 22 months, resulting in
a single calf being born. Their social structure was probably the
same as that of African and Asian elephants, with females living in
herds headed by a matriarch, whilst bulls lived solitary lives or
formed loose groups after sexual maturity.
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