Mammoths are amazing mammals that have died out from climate change. They are distant relatives of modern elephants.
When did mammoths die out?
The mammoth species is one of the best studied in modern paleontology. First of all, this can be explained by the fact that they lived on Earth relatively recently and even were contemporaries of man. Until now, researchers often stumble upon the remains of these animals.
So when did the mammoths die out? This happened about 10 thousand years ago, when the last global cooling in the global climate happened. Because of this, a fierce species struggle for survival began. People who had mastered various hunting tools by this time became a threat to all mammoths. One carcass of such an animal could feed the tribe for a long time. Because of this, the range of these proboscis decreased more and more.
Fight with man
Paleontologists most often find the remains of giant animals precisely at the sites of ancient people. Bones were carefully processed using stone tools, so that later they could be used as tools in everyday life. The hunters had to come up with a lot of tricks to catch such a huge thing as a mammoth. An extinct animal did not succumb to the blows of primitive copies. Of course, it was completely impossible for a man alone to overcome such a creature. Therefore, they hunted him in groups. On paths where mammoths roamed out of habit, masked pits rummaged, where the animal fell and became easy prey. Often, spears or darts aim at the groin - one of the few weaknesses. Even in the 19th century, African natives used similar methods when hunting elephants there.
The impact of climate change
In addition, there was another important reason why mammoths became extinct. These animals lacked food. Many of the species that they ate became extinct due to cooling (34 species disappeared during this period). Lack of food and human threat led to the fact that not a single mammoth was left in the world. This phenomenon of mass extinction due to changes in living conditions in modern science has been called the Great Holocene Extinction.
There are several secondary signs of fidelity to the theory that it was climate that became the main cause of the extinction of these mammals. When mammoths died out, not only other animals, but also individual human communities disappeared with them. For example, such was the culture of Clovis. It was made up of Stone Age aborigines living in Central and North America. That is, the coexistence of mammoths and humans did not cause the extinction of proboscis.
Climate change included not only a sharp cooling (changing diet), but also warming, which had already directly hit these giants. The retreat of the ice and taiga to the north forced them to migrate farther and farther to extreme latitudes, where they eventually became extinct.
Last mammoths
Recent discoveries show that even after the disappearance of woolly elephants on the mainland, some isolated colonies existed on separate archipelagos. For example, bones were discovered on Wrangel Island, whose age was about 4 thousand years. So scientists proved that isolated flocks still took place when pyramids were already being built in Ancient Egypt, and Mycenaean civilization appeared in Greece. Of course, the inhabitants of the then Mediterranean did not know when the mammoths became extinct.
On Wrangel Island, the period of mammoths lasted an extra thousand years. However, these animals were different from those that were previously distributed throughout Eurasia. Their size rarely reached 1.5 meters. This was due to the fact that the food chain has changed greatly. Mammoths had to reduce their diet, which affected the growth of individuals in childhood. These data became known after the teeth found on the Wrangel Island by Russian paleontologists in 1993 were studied and analyzed. The last “dwarf" community no longer knew the predators that could be a threat to them. Therefore, most of the discovered fossils correspond to older individuals.
When mammoths died out on the mainland, other species took their place. On Wrangel Island, an isolated community continued to exist peacefully and develop. However, why did mammoths become extinct on this small piece of land? Perhaps a man ruled here. Unlike the previous era, when mammoths inhabited millions of square kilometers, killing just a few individuals on one island could upset the balance within the community.
Age of Mammoth
Now that it became clear how many years ago mammoths died out, we can talk about the environment in which they experienced their heyday. This period took place about 120 thousand years ago. At this time, mammoths lived not only in modern Siberia, but also in Europe, up to Spain. In Asia, this habitat reached the shores of the Caspian Sea. Here, too, they found the remains that remained after the mammoths became extinct. The era of their predominance in the surrounding fauna lasted several tens of millennia.
The climate helped the mammoths. During the Quaternary, Eurasia experienced three severe cooling periods when glaciers appeared far south of the Arctic Circle. The harsh continental climate greatly reduced the area of impenetrable forests. And vice versa, the size of the steppes suitable for mammoths has increased significantly.
Mammoth Neighbors
Around these giants there was always a rich fauna with which they contacted in one way or another. These were reindeer, hairy rhinos, musk ox, horses, yaks, cave bears, saigas. Among small mammals, it is worth noting lemmings, ground squirrels, etc. In total, about 80 species of fauna can be listed.
When, due to gradual warming, dense forests came to replace the native tundra steppes, mammoths left these places. So their range was reduced, but in the end they completely disappeared.
Mammoths in folklore
The peoples of the Far North still keep many legends about the woolly giants who once lived on their land. Siberia was a place where hunting for a mammoth flourished before. Komi, Khanty, Mansi and other indigenous inhabitants of the endless tundra preserved legends about them in folklore. In addition, it was these people, even before the Europeans, who often found relic teeth and bones, which were used in everyday life or as expensive jewelry.
Alaskan Eskimos carved an image of these mammals on their weapons made from walrus bones. Laplanders living in northern Scandinavia believe that mammoths are woolly-covered giants that hide underground. The Chukchi of Eastern Siberia has preserved legends about mammoths as carriers of an evil spirit.
These animals from Eurasia came to America. In the folklore of the Indians there are also legends about the "huge bison". Mammoth hunting was common on one as well as on the other mainland. Due to global cooling, the level of the world ocean has dropped significantly, which made it possible for animals and people to travel from one part of the world to another.