Mammoths. Comparison of a mammoth and an elephant: size and weight, how they differ, are they relatives, who is bigger and stronger? Finds on the territory of Russia

The mammoth fauna included about 80 species of mammals, which, thanks to a number of anatomical, physiological and behavioral adaptations managed to adapt to living in cold continental climate periglacial forest-steppe and tundra-steppe regions with their permafrost, harsh winters with little snow and powerful summer insolation. Around the turn of the Holocene, about 11 thousand years ago, due to a sharp warming and humidification of the climate, which led to the unfreezing of the tundra-steppes and other fundamental changes in landscapes, the mammoth fauna disintegrated. Some species, such as the mammoth itself, the woolly rhinoceros, the giant deer, the cave lion and others, have disappeared from the face of the earth. A number of large species of calloused and ungulates - wild camels, horses, yaks, saiga - have survived in the steppes of Central Asia, some others have adapted to life in completely different natural areas(bison, kulan); many, such as reindeer, musk ox, arctic fox, wolverine, mountain hare and others, were forced far to the north and sharply reduced their area of ​​distribution. The reasons for the extinction of the mammoth fauna are not fully known. Behind long history During its existence, it already experienced warm interglacial periods, and was then able to survive. Obviously, the latest warming has caused a more significant restructuring natural environment, or maybe the species themselves have exhausted their evolutionary capabilities.

Mammoths, woolly (Mammuthus primigenius) and Columbian (Mammuthus columbi), lived in the Pleistocene-Holocene over a vast territory: from Southern and Central Europe to Chukotka, Northern China and Japan (Hokkaido Island), as well as in North America. The existence of the Columbian mammoth was 250 - 10, woolly 300 - 4 thousand years ago (some researchers also include southern (2300 - 700 thousand years old) and trogontherian (750 - 135 thousand years old) elephants to the genus Mammuthus). Contrary to popular belief, mammoths were not the ancestors of modern elephants: they appeared on earth later and died out without leaving even distant descendants. Mammoths roamed in small herds, sticking to river valleys and feeding on grass, branches of trees and bushes. Such herds were very mobile - to collect required amount feeding in the tundra-steppe was not easy. The size of the mammoths was quite impressive: large males could reach a height of 3.5 meters, and their tusks were up to 4 m long and weighed about 100 kilograms. A thick coat, 70-80 cm long, protected mammoths from the cold. The average life expectancy was 4550, maximum 80 years. The main reason for the extinction of these highly specialized animals is the sharp warming and humidification of the climate at the boundary of the Pleistocene and Holocene, snowy winters, as well as extensive marine transgression that flooded the Eurasian shelf and North America.

The structural features of the limbs and trunk, the proportions of the body, the shape and size of the mammoth’s tusks indicate that it, like modern elephants, ate various plant foods. With the help of tusks, animals dug out food from under the snow and tore off the bark of trees; Wedge ice was mined and used instead of water in winter. For grinding food, the mammoth had only one, very large tooth on each side of the upper and lower jaws at the same time. The chewing surface of these teeth was a wide, long plate covered with transverse enamel ridges. Apparently, in the warm season the animals fed mainly on herbaceous vegetation. In the intestines and oral cavity dead in the summer Mammoths were dominated by cereals and sedges; lingonberry bushes, green mosses and thin shoots of willow, birch, and alder were found in small quantities. The weight of an adult mammoth's stomach filled with food could reach 240 kg. It can be assumed that in winter time, especially in areas with a lot of snow, shoots of trees and shrubs acquired primary importance in the diet of animals. The huge amount of food consumed forced mammoths, like modern elephants, to lead an active lifestyle and often change their feeding areas.

Adult mammoths were massive animals, with relatively long legs and a short body. Their height at the withers reached 3.5 m in males and 3 m in females. Characteristic feature appearance The mammoth had a sharp sloping back, and for old males there was a pronounced cervical interception between the “hump” and the head. In mammoth calves, these exterior features were softened, and the upper line of the head and back was a single, slightly curved upward arc. Such an arch is present in adult mammoths, as well as in modern elephants, and is connected, purely mechanically, with maintaining the enormous weight of the internal organs. The mammoth's head was larger than that of modern elephants. The ears are small, oval elongated, 5–6 times smaller than those of the Asian elephant, and 15–16 times smaller than those of the African elephant. The rostral part of the skull was quite narrow, the alveoli of the tusks were located very close to each other, and the base of the trunk rested on them. The tusks are more powerful than those of African and Asian elephants: their length in old males reached 4 m with a base diameter of 1618 cm, in addition, they were twisted up and inward. The tusks of females were smaller (2–2.2 m, diameter at the base 8–10 cm) and almost straight. The ends of the tusks, due to the peculiarities of foraging, were usually worn away only from the outside. The mammoths' legs were massive, five-toed, with 3 small hooves on the front legs and 4 on the hind legs; the feet are rounded, their diameter in adults was 40–45 cm. The special arrangement of the bones of the hand contributed to its greater compactness, and the loose subcutaneous tissue and elastic skin allowed the foot to expand and increase its area on soft marshy soils. But still, the most unique feature of the mammoth’s external appearance is its thick coat, which consisted of three types of hair: undercoat, intermediate and covering, or guard hair. The topography and color of the coat was relatively the same in males and females: a cap of black, forward-directed coarse hair, 15–20 cm long, grew on the forehead and crown, and the trunk and ears were covered with undercoat and a brown or brownish awn. The entire body of the mammoth was also covered with long, 80–90 cm guard hairs, under which a thick yellowish undercoat was hidden. The color of the skin of the body was lightish yellow or brown; dark areas were observed in areas free from fur. dark spots. During the winter, mammoths moulted; The winter coat was thicker and lighter than the summer coat.

Mammoths had a special relationship with primitive man. Mammoth remains at early Paleolithic human sites were quite rare and belonged mainly to young individuals. It seems that primitive hunters of that period did not hunt mammoths often, and the hunt for these huge animals was rather a random event. In Late Paleolithic settlements, the picture changes dramatically: the number of bones increases, the ratio of hunted males, females and young animals approaches the natural structure of the herd. The hunting of mammoths and other large animals of that period no longer acquired a selective, but a mass character; The main method of catching animals is driving them onto rocky cliffs, into trapping pits, onto the fragile ice of rivers and lakes, into swampy areas of swamps and on rafting grounds. The hunted animals were finished off with stones, darts and spears with stone tips. Mammoth meat was used for food, tusks were used to make weapons and crafts, bones, skulls and skins were used to build dwellings and ritual structures. The mass hunting of people of the Late Paleolithic, the growth in the number of tribes of hunters, the improvement of hunting tools and methods of production against the backdrop of constantly deteriorating living conditions associated with changes in familiar landscapes, according to some researchers, played a role decisive role in the fate of these animals.

The importance of mammoths in the life of primitive people is evidenced by the fact that 20–30 thousand years ago, artists of the Cro-Magnon era depicted mammoths on stone and bone, using flint burins and brushes with ocher, ferric oxide and manganese oxides. The paint was first ground with fat or bone marrow. Flat images were painted on cave walls, on slate and graphite plates, and on fragments of tusks; sculptural - created from bone, marl or slate using flint burins. It is very possible that such figurines were used as talismans, family totems, or played another ritual role. Despite the limitations expressive means, many of the images are made very artistically, and quite accurately convey the appearance of fossil giants.

During the 18th and 19th centuries, a little more than twenty reliable finds of mammoth remains in the form of frozen carcasses, their parts, skeletons with remains of soft tissue and skin were known in Siberia. It can also be assumed that some of the finds remained unknown to science; many were discovered too late and could not be examined. Using the example of the Adams mammoth, discovered in 1799 on the Bykovsky Peninsula, it is clear that news about the found animals reached the Academy of Sciences only several years after they were discovered, and getting to the far corners of Siberia even in the second half of the twentieth century was not easy . The greatest difficulty was extracting the corpse from the frozen ground and transporting it. The work of excavating and delivering a mammoth discovered in the Berezovka River valley in 1900 (undoubtedly the most significant paleozoological discovery of the early twentieth century) can be called heroic without exaggeration.

In the 20th century, the number of finds of mammoth remains in Siberia doubled. This is due to the widespread development of the North, the rapid development of transport and communications, and the rise in the cultural level of the population. The first complex expedition using modern technology was a trip for the Taimyr mammoth, found in 1948 on an unnamed river, later called the Mammoth River. Removing the remains of animals “sealed” into the permafrost has become much easier these days thanks to the use of motor pumps that defrost and erode the soil with water. The “cemetery” of mammoths, discovered by N.F., should be considered a remarkable natural monument. Grigoriev in 1947 on the Berelekh River (the left tributary of the Indigirka River) in Yakutia. For 200 meters, the river bank here is covered with a scattering of mammoth bones washed out of the bank slope.

By studying the Magadan (1977) and Yamal (1988) mammoth calves, scientists were able to clarify not only many issues of the anatomy and morphology of mammoths, but also draw a number of important conclusions about their habitat and the causes of extinction. The last few years have brought new remarkable discoveries in Siberia: special mention should be made of the Yukagir mammoth (2002), which represents unique, from a scientific point of view, material (the head of an adult mammoth was discovered with remains of soft tissue and wool) and a baby mammoth found in 2007 in the river basin Yuribey in Yamal. Outside Russia, it is necessary to note the finds of mammoth remains made by American scientists in Alaska, as well as a unique “trap cemetery” with the remains of more than 100 mammoths, discovered by L. Agenbrod in the town of Hot Springs (South Dakota, USA) in 1974.

The exhibits in the mammoth hall are unique - after all, the animals presented here disappeared from the face of the earth several thousand years ago. Some of the most significant of them need to be discussed in more detail.

It is still unclear why mammoths became extinct. And although they lived on the Arctic Wrangel Island until the time of construction Egyptian pyramids, there is no written evidence about the reasons for the disappearance of mammoths from our planet.

If we discard assumptions about the fall of meteorites, volcanic eruptions and other natural disasters, the main reasons will be climate and people.

In 2008, an unusual accumulation of bones of mammoths and other animals was discovered, which could not have appeared as a result of natural processes, such as hunting by predators or the death of animals. These were the skeletal remains of at least 26 mammoths, and the bones were sorted by species.

Apparently, people for a long time kept the bones that were most interesting to them, some of which bear traces of tools. And the people of the end of the Ice Age had no shortage of hunting weapons.

How were carcass parts delivered to the sites? And Belgian archaeozoologists have an answer to this: they could transport meat and tusks from the butchering site using dogs.

Mammoths went extinct about 10 thousand years ago during the last Ice Age. Some experts do not rule out that humans also changed the climate... by destroying mammoths and other northern giants. With the disappearance large mammals producing large volumes of methane, the level of this greenhouse gas in the atmosphere should have decreased by about 200 units. This led to a cooling of 9-12°C about 14 thousand years ago.

Mammoths reached a height of 5.5 meters and a body weight of 10-12 tons. Thus, these giants were twice as heavy as the largest modern land mammals - African elephants.

In Siberia and Alaska, there are known cases of the discovery of mammoth corpses that were preserved due to their presence in the thickness of permafrost. Therefore, scientists are not dealing with individual fossils or several skeleton bones, but can even study the blood, muscles, and fur of these animals and also determine what they ate.

Mammoths had a massive body, long hair and long curved tusks; the latter could serve the mammoth for getting food from under the snow in winter. Mammoth skeleton:

In terms of its skeletal structure, the mammoth bears a significant resemblance to the living Indian elephant. Huge mammoth tusks, up to 4 m in length, weighing up to 100 kg, were located in the upper jaw, protruded forward, curved upward and diverged to the sides. Mammoth and mastodon are another extinct gigantic proboscis mammal:

It is interesting that as they wore out, the mammoth’s teeth (like those of modern elephants) were replaced with new ones, and such a change could take place up to 6 times during its life. Monument to the mammoth in Salekhard:

Most known species mammoths - woolly mammoth (lat. Mammuthus primigenius). It appeared in Siberia 200-300 thousand years ago, from where it spread to Europe and North America.

The woolly mammoth is the most exotic animal of the Ice Age and is its symbol. Real giants, mammoths at the withers reached 3.5 m and weighed 4-6 tons. Mammoths were protected from the cold by thick long hair with developed undercoat, which was more than a meter long on the shoulders, hips and sides, as well as a layer of fat up to 9 cm thick. 12-13 thousand years ago, mammoths lived throughout Northern Eurasia and throughout much of North America. Due to climate warming, the habitats of mammoths - the tundra-steppe - have decreased. Mammoths migrated to the north of the continent and for the last 9-10 thousand years they lived on a narrow strip of land along the Arctic coast of Eurasia, which is now mostly flooded by the sea. The last mammoths lived on Wrangel Island, where they became extinct about 3,500 years ago.

In winter, the coarse wool of the mammoth consisted of hair 90 cm long. A layer of fat about 10 cm thick served as additional thermal insulation.

Mammoths are herbivores; they fed mainly herbaceous plants(cereals, sedges, forbs), small shrubs (dwarf birches, willows), tree shoots and moss. In winter, in order to feed themselves, in search of food, they raked snow with their forelimbs and extremely developed upper incisors - tusks, the length of which in large males was more than 4 meters, and they weighed about 100 kg. Mammoth teeth were well adapted for grinding rough food. Each of the 4 teeth of a mammoth changed five times during its life. A mammoth ate 200-300 kg of vegetation per day, that is, he had to eat 18-20 hours a day and constantly move around in search of new pastures.

It is assumed that living mammoths were colored black or dark brown. Because they had small ears and short trunks (compared to modern elephants), the woolly mammoth was adapted to life in cold climates.

Thanks to mammoths, rulers of the northern polar steppes and tundras, ancient man survived in harsh conditions: they gave him food and clothing, shelter, shelter from the cold. Thus, mammoth meat, subcutaneous and abdominal fat were used for nutrition; for clothing - skins, sinews, wool; for the manufacture of dwellings, tools, hunting equipment and equipment and crafts - tusks and bones.

During the Ice Age, the woolly mammoth was the largest animal in the Eurasian expanses.

It is assumed that woolly mammoths lived in groups of 2-9 individuals and were led by older females.

The life expectancy of mammoths was approximately the same as that of modern elephants, i.e. no more than 60-65 years old.

“By its nature, the mammoth is a meek and peace-loving animal, and affectionate towards people. When meeting a person, the mammoth not only does not attack him, but even clings and fawns over the person” (from the notes of Tobolsk local historian P. Gorodtsov, 19th century).

Largest quantity mammoth bones found in Siberia. Giant mammoth cemetery - New Siberian Islands. In the last century, up to 20 tons of elephant tusks were mined there annually. Monument to mammoths in Khanty-Mansiysk:

In Yakutia there is an auction where you can buy the remains of mammoths. approximate price A kilogram of mammoth ivory is $200.

Unique finds.

Adams Mammoth

The world's first mammoth was found in 1799 in the lower reaches of the Lena River by hunter O. Shumakhov, who reached the Lena River delta in search of mammoth tusks. The huge block of frozen earth and ice where he found the mammoth tusk completely thawed only in the summer of 1804. In 1806, M. Adams, an associate professor of zoology at the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, who was passing through Yakutsk, learned about the find. Having gone to the place, he discovered the skeleton of a mammoth, eaten wild animals and dogs. The skin was preserved on the mammoth’s head; one ear, dried eyes and brain also survived, and on the side on which it lay there was skin with thick, long hair. Thanks to the dedicated efforts of the zoologist, the skeleton was delivered to St. Petersburg that same year. So, in 1808, for the first time in the world, a complete skeleton of a mammoth was mounted - Adams' mammoth. Currently, he, like the baby mammoth Dima, is on display at the museum of the Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg.

In 1970, on the left bank of the Berelekh River, the left tributary of the Indigirka River (90 km northwest of the village of Chokurdakh in the Allaikhovsky ulus), a huge accumulation of bone remains was found that belonged to approximately 160 mammoths that lived 13 thousand years ago. Nearby was the dwelling of ancient hunters. In terms of the quantity and quality of preserved fragments of mammoth bodies, the Berelekh cemetery is the largest in the world. It indicates a massive death of weakened and snow-drifted animals.

Scientists tried to establish the cause of the death of a huge number of mammoths on the Berelech River. During these works, a frozen hind leg of a medium-sized adult mammoth, 170 cm long, was found. Over many thousands of years, the leg became mummified, but was preserved quite well - along with the skin and wool, individual strands of which reached a length of 120 cm. The absolute age of the Berelekh mammoth's leg was determined approximately at 13 thousand years. The age of other mammoth bones found, which were dated later, ranged from 14 to 12 thousand years. The remains of other animals were also found at the burial site. For example, next to the frozen leg of a mammoth, the frozen and mummified corpses of an ancient wolverine and a white partridge, which lived in the same era as mammoths, were discovered. Bones of other animals, woolly rhinoceros, ancient horse, bison, musk ox, reindeer, white hare, wolf, living in the area of ​​the Berelekh location in Ice Age, there was relatively little - less than 1%. Mammoth bones accounted for more than 99.3% of all finds.

Currently, paleontological materials from the Berelekh cemetery are stored at the Institute of Geology of Diamond and Precious Metals of the SB RAS in Yakutsk.

Shandri Mammoth

In 1971, D. Kuzmin discovered the skeleton of a mammoth that lived 41 thousand years ago on the right bank of the Shandrin River, which flows into the channel of the Indigirka River delta. Inside the skeleton was a frozen lump of entrails. Plant remains consisting of herbs, branches, shrubs, and seeds were found in the gastrointestinal tract. So, thanks to this, one of the five unique content remains gastrointestinal tract mammoths (cut size 70x35 cm), we managed to find out the animal’s diet. The mammoth was a large male, 60 years old, and apparently died from old age and physical exhaustion. The skeleton of the Shandrin mammoth is located at the Institute of History and Philosophy of the SB RAS.

Mammoth Dima

In 1977, a well-preserved 7-8 month old mammoth calf was discovered in the Kolyma River basin. It was a touching and sad sight for the prospectors who discovered the baby mammoth Dima (he was named after the spring of the same name, in the valley of which he was found): he was lying on his side with mournfully outstretched legs, with closed pelvises and a slightly crumpled trunk.

The find immediately became a world sensation due to its excellent preservation and the possible cause of the baby mammoth’s death. The poet Stepan Shchipachev composed a touching poem about a baby mammoth who had fallen behind his mammoth mother, and an animated film was made about the unfortunate baby mammoth.

Yukagir mammoth

In 2002, near the Muksunuokha River, 30 km from the village of Yukagir, schoolchildren Innokenty and Grigory Gorokhov found the head of a male mammoth. In 2003 - 2004 the remaining parts of the corpse were excavated. The most well preserved are the head with tusks, most of the skin, the left ear and eye socket, as well as the left front leg, consisting of the forearm and with muscles and tendons. Of the remaining parts, cervical and thoracic vertebrae, part of the ribs, shoulder blades, the right humerus, part of the viscera, and wool were found. According to radiocarbon dating, the mammoth lived 18 thousand years ago. A male about 3 m tall at the withers and weighing 4 - 5 tons died at the age of 40 - 50 years (for comparison: average duration The lifespan of modern elephants is 60 - 70 years), probably after falling into a pit. Currently, anyone can see a model of the mammoth’s head in the Mammoth Museum of the Federal State Scientific Institution “Institute of Applied Ecology of the North” in Yakutsk.

It is impossible to fully imagine the atmosphere of the last ice age without a woolly mammoth or two stomping across the frozen tundra. But how much do you know about these legendary animals? Below are 10 amazing and interesting facts about mammoths that you might not know.

1. Mammoth tusks reached 4 m in length

In addition to their long, shaggy coats, mammoths are known for their huge tusks, which in large males reached 4 m in length. Such large tusks most likely marked sexual attractiveness: males with longer, curved, and impressive tusks were able to mate with more females during the breeding season. Also, the tusks may have been used defensively to ward off hungry saber-tooth tigers, although there is no direct fossil evidence to support this theory.

2. Mammoths were the favorite prey of primitive people

The gigantic size of the mammoth (about 5 m in height and weighing 5-7 tons) made it a particularly desirable prey for primitive hunters. Thick woolen skins could provide warmth in cold times, and tasty, fatty meat served as an essential source of food. It has been suggested that the patience, planning and cooperation required to capture mammoths was a key factor in the development of human civilization!

3. Mammoths were immortalized in cave paintings

From 30,000 to 12,000 years ago, the mammoth was one of the most popular subjects of Neolithic artists, who depicted images of this shaggy beast on the walls of numerous caves Western Europe. Perhaps the primitive paintings were intended as totems (i.e. early people believed that the image of a mammoth in rock paintings made it easier to capture it in real life). Also, the drawings could serve as objects of cult, or talented primitive artists were simply bored on a cold, rainy day! :)

4. Mammoths weren’t the only “woolly” mammals back then.

Any warm-blooded animal, to a certain extent, needs fur to retain body heat. One of the mammoth's shaggy cousins ​​was the lesser-known woolly rhinoceros, which roamed the plains of Eurasia during the Pleistocene era. Woolly rhinoceroses, like mammoths, often became the prey of primitive hunters, who may have considered them easier prey.

5. The genus of mammoths included many species

The widely known woolly mammoth was actually one of several species included in the genus mammoth. A dozen other species lived in North America and Eurasia throughout the Pleistocene era, including the steppe mammoth, Columbus mammoth, dwarf mammoth and others. However, none of these species were as widespread as the woolly mammoth.

6. Sungari mammoth (Mammuthus sungari) was the largest of all species

Some individuals of the Sungari mammoth (Mammuthus sungari), living in Northern China, reached a mass of about 13 tons (compared to such giants, at 5-7 tons the woolly mammoth seemed short). In the Western Hemisphere, the palm belonged to the imperial mammoth (Mammuthus imperator), males of this species weighed more than 10 tons.

7. Mammoths had an impressive layer of fat under their skin.

Even the thickest skin and thick woolen coat cannot fully provide sufficient protection during severe arctic storms. For this reason, mammoths had a 10-centimeter layer of fat under their skin, which served as additional insulation and kept their bodies warm in the harshest climatic conditions.

By the way, as far as we can judge from the preserved remains, the color of mammoth fur varied from light to dark brown, just like human hair.

8. The last mammoths went extinct about 4,000 years ago

By the end of the last ice age, about 10,000 years ago, mammoth populations around the world had virtually disappeared due to climate change and constant hunting by humans. The exception was a small population of mammoths that lived on Wrangel Island off the coast of Siberia until 1700 BC. Due to the limited food supply, mammoths from Wrangel Island were much smaller than their counterparts from the mainland, for which they were often called dwarf elephants.

9. Many mammoth bodies were preserved in permafrost

Even today, 10,000 years after the last ice age, northern regions Canada, Alaska and Siberia have a very cold climate, keeping numerous mammoth bodies virtually intact. Identifying and extracting giant corpses from blocks of ice is a fairly simple task; keeping the remains at room temperature is much more difficult.

10. Scientists are able to clone a mammoth

Since mammoths became extinct relatively recently and modern elephants are their closest relatives, scientists are able to collect mammoth DNA and incubate it in a female elephant (a process known as "de-extinction"). Researchers recently announced that they have almost completely sequenced the genomes of two 40,000-year-old samples. Unfortunately or fortunately, the same trick won't work with dinosaurs, since DNA doesn't preserve that well over tens of millions of years.

Woolly Mammoth, or Siberian mammoth(lat. Mammuthus primigenius) is an extinct species of the elephant family.

Description

Fragments of a mammoth tusk (Rtishchevsky Museum of History and Local Lore)

The height at the withers of large male mammoths was about 3 meters, and the weight did not exceed 5-6 tons. Females were noticeably smaller than males. The high withers made the silhouette of the animal somewhat hunchbacked.

The entire body of the mammoth was covered with thick fur. The length of the fur on an adult animal on the shoulders, hips and sides reached almost a meter, resulting in a long dewlap that covered the belly and top part limbs. The thick, dense undercoat, covered with coarse guard hairs, reliably protected the animal from the cold. The color of the coat varied from brown, almost black in places, to yellow-brown and reddish. The cubs were somewhat lighter in color, with a predominance of yellow-brown and reddish tones. The size of the mammoth was approximately the same as that of modern elephants, but its thick and long hair made its figure more impressive.

The mammoth's head was massive, the top was stretched upward, and on the crown of it was crowned with a “cap” of coarse black hair. The fur-covered ears were small, smaller than those of an Indian elephant. The tail is short, with a brush of long, very stiff and thick black hair at the end. In addition to small ears and thick undercoat, protection from the cold was, according to Academician V.V. Zalensky, the anal valve - a fold of skin under the tail covering the anus. From the skin glands of the mammoth, the sebaceous glands of the skin and the postorbital gland were discovered, with the secretion of which modern elephants mark territory during the breeding season.

The appearance of the mammoth was complemented by huge tusks, which had a peculiar spiral curve. When exiting the jaw, they were directed downward and somewhat to the sides, and their ends were bent inward, towards each other. With age, the curvature of the tusks, especially in males, increased, so that in very old animals their ends almost closed or crossed. The tusks of large males reached a length of 4 m, and their weight reached 110 kg. In females, the tusks were less curved and thinner at the base. Mammoth tusks from a young age have wear zones, indicating their intensive use. They are located differently than in modern elephants, on the outside of the tusks. It is suggested that with the help of tusks, mammoths raked snow and dug out food from under it, stripped bark from trees, and in snowless cold times, broke out pieces of ice to quench their thirst.

To grind food on each side of the upper and lower jaws at the same time, the mammoth had only one, but very large tooth. The change of teeth occurred in a horizontal direction, the back tooth moved forward and pushed out the worn out front tooth, which was a small remnant of 2-3 enamel plates. During the life of the animal, 6 teeth were successively replaced in each half of the jaw, of which the first three were considered milk teeth, and the last three were considered permanent, molars. When the last of them was completely erased, the animal lost the ability to feed and died.

The chewing surface of mammoth teeth is a wide and long plate covered with transverse enamel ridges. These teeth are highly durable and well preserved, so they are found much more often than other bone remains of the animal.

Compared to modern elephants, the mammoth was slightly shorter-legged. This is due to the fact that he ate mainly pasture, while his modern relatives tend to eat branches and leaves of trees, tearing them off high altitude. The mammoth's limbs resembled columns. The soles of the feet were covered with unusually hard keratinized skin 5-6 cm thick, dotted with deep cracks. Above the inner side of the sole there was a special elastic cushion, which played the role of a shock absorber during movement, making the mammoth’s tread light and silent. On the leading edge of the soles there were small nail-like hooves, 3 on the forelimbs and 4 on the hind limbs. Under the influence of the wet soil of the coastal tundra-steppe, the hooves grew and, acquiring ugly shapes, clearly interfered with the mammoths. The diameter of the large mammoth's footprint reached almost half a meter. The animal’s legs, thanks to its enormous weight, exerted great pressure on the ground, so mammoths avoided sticky and swampy places whenever possible.

Spreading

The famous Russian paleontologist A.V. Sher put forward a hypothesis that the homeland of the woolly mammoth was the northeast of Siberia (Western Beringia). The most ancient remains (about 800 thousand years ago) of this type of mammoth are known from the Kolyma River valley, from where it subsequently spread to Europe and, as the Ice Age intensified, to North America.

Habitats and lifestyle

The lifestyle and habitats of mammoths cannot yet be convincingly reconstructed. However, by analogy with modern elephants, it can be assumed that mammoths were herd animals. This is confirmed by paleontological finds. In a herd of mammoths, just like elephants, there was a leader, most likely an old female. Males kept in separate groups or alone. Probably, during seasonal migrations, mammoths united in huge herds.

Vast areas of tundra-steppes were heterogeneous in the productivity of biotopes. Most likely, the places richest in food were river valleys and lake basins. There were thickets of tall grasses and sedges. In hilly areas, mammoths could feed mainly on the bottom of valleys, where there were more dwarf willow and birch shrubs. The huge amount of food consumed suggests that mammoths, like modern elephants, led an active lifestyle and often changed their habitat.

Apparently, in the warm season the animals fed mainly on herbaceous vegetation. In the frozen guts of two mammoths that died in warm weather, sedges and grasses (especially cotton grass) predominated; lingonberry bushes, green mosses and thin shoots of willow, birch, and alder were found in small quantities. The contents of the stomach of one of the mammoths filled with food weighed about 250 kg. It can be assumed that in winter, especially when there is a lot of snow, the mammoth’s diet great importance acquired shoots of trees and shrubs.

The discoveries of mummies of baby mammoths - mammoths - have somewhat expanded the understanding of the biology of these animals. Now we can assume that the mammoth calves were born in early spring, their body was completely covered with thick hair. By the time winter arrived, they had already grown noticeably and were able to make long trips together with adults, for example, migrating south at the end of autumn.

Of the predators, the most dangerous for mammoth calves were cave lions. It is possible that a sick or distressed animal also became a victim of wolves or hyenas. No one could threaten healthy adult mammoths, and only with the advent of active human hunting for mammoths did they become constantly in danger.

Extinction

There are several theories about the extinction of woolly mammoths, but the exact reasons for their death remain a mystery. The extinction of mammoths probably occurred gradually and not simultaneously in different parts their huge range. As living conditions worsened, the area where animals lived was narrowed and split into small areas. The number of animals decreased, the fertility of females decreased and the mortality of young animals increased. It is very likely that mammoths died out earlier in Europe and somewhat later in northeastern Siberia, where natural conditions did not change so dramatically. 3-4 thousand years ago, mammoths finally disappeared from the face of the earth. The last mammoth populations survived longest in northeastern Siberia and on Wrangel Island.

Finds on the territory of the Rtishchevsky district

Part of a mammoth jaw. Found in the vicinity of the village of Elan in 1927. Serdobsk Local Lore Museum

In the territory of the present Rtishchevsky district, bones, teeth and tusks of mammoths were often found.

In 2011, mammoth bones were found in the eroded bank of the Iznair River near the village of Zmeevki.

On September 9 of this year, in the Kalinov ravine near the village of Elan, archaeologists discovered the humerus of the front leg of a mammoth. The length of the bone is 80 cm, in diameter - 17 cm and in circumference - 44.4 cm. Here in spring flood year, peasant M. T. Tareev found a well-preserved mammoth tusk. The length of the tusk was more than two meters, weight - about 70 kg. These finds are kept in the collections of the Serdob Local History Museum.

In the early 1970s, near the village named after Maxim Gorky, mammoth bones were discovered. According to eyewitnesses, they were discovered by a fifth grade student at Shilo-Golitsynskaya high school Sasha Gurkin. As a result of excavations, vertebrae, shoulder blades, shin bones, ribs and a piece of tusk were extracted from the clay slope of a deep ravine. The remaining parts of the skeleton could not be found. Next to the bones of an adult animal, a fibula was found, clearly belonging to a cub.

The Rtishchevsky Museum of History and Local Lore contains parts of a mammoth's tusk and teeth.

Literature

• Izotova M. A. History of the study of archaeological monuments of the Rtishchevsky district of the Saratov region. - P. 236
• Kuvanov A. Into the depths of centuries (From the series of essays “Rtishchevo”) // Lenin’s Path. - December 15, 1970. - P. 4
• Oleynikov N. From time immemorial // Lenin’s Path. - May 22, 1971. - P. 4
• Tikhonov A. N. Mammoth. - M. - St. Petersburg: Partnership of Scientific Publications KMK, 2005. - 90 p. (Series “Animal Diversity”. Issue 3)

Rtishchevo and Rtishchevsky district in topics
Symbols and awards
People of the city and region
Administrative territorial division

It is believed that the word “mammoth” comes from the phrase “mang ont”, which translated from Mansi means “earthen horn”. Then it spread to other languages ​​of the world, including English. These huge animals lived during the Pleistocene era. They inhabited the territory of Europe, Northern Asia and North America. Many researchers and archaeologists are still concerned with the mystery: how did these animals disappear from the face of the Earth?

Finds on the territory of Russia

The mammoth is an extinct species of animal. He is one of the closest relatives of the elephant. Scientists still argue about when mammoths became extinct. At excavations of sites of ancient man, which belong to stone age, drawings of these animals were found. In the Voronezh region, archaeologists discovered mammoth bones. Ancient man used them to build his home. There is an assumption that they were also used as fuel.

In both Siberia and Alaska, researchers found mammoth corpses that were preserved thanks to permafrost. In Oleg Kuvaev’s book entitled “Territory” you can even read a story about how one of the archaeologists knitted himself a sweater from the wool of an ancient animal. Scientists are finding remains of mammoth bones in the most unexpected places. Teeth and bones are often found in the Moscow region and even in the capital itself.

Appearance of animals

Mammoths were no larger in size than a modern elephant. However, their torso was more massive, and their limbs were shorter. The wool of mammoths was long, and at the top of their jaws they had menacing tusks up to 4 meters long. In winter, with the help of these tusks, like a bulldozer, the animals shoveled snow. Some subspecies of mammoths reached unprecedented weight - as much as 10.5 tons.

Inhabitants of Wrangel Island

There are many theories about when mammoths became extinct. One of them belongs to the candidate of geological sciences Sergei Vartanyan. In 1993, on the territory of Wrangel Island, he discovered the remains of the so-called dwarf mammoths. Their height did not exceed 1.8 m. Researchers, using radiocarbon dating, came to the conclusion that mammoths could have lived here 3.7 thousand years ago.

Before this discovery, scientists believed that last mammoths could have lived on Taimyr about 10 thousand years ago. The scientist’s find showed that these animals lived on Wrangel Island simultaneously with the flourishing of the Minoan culture on the territory of the island. Crete, Sumerian civilization, and the 11th dynasty of pharaohs in Egypt.

Basic Assumptions

Currently, there are two main hypotheses that explain why mammoths became extinct. According to the first, this happened due to worsening climatic conditions. Proponents of another hypothesis believe that the main cause was human activity - hunting. During the Upper Paleolithic era, people had already settled throughout the Earth. It was at this time that these huge animals were exterminated.

Main hypothesis

Research shows that mammoths began to die out as a species quite a long time ago - about 120 thousand years ago. The final disappearance occurred at the boundary between two ice ages. Gradually the population decreased from several million to tens of thousands. During the Ice Age, it was so cold on Earth that the grass that these animals ate became very rare. The meadows in the north gradually began to turn into forests and tundra. The result of the disappearance of this species was precisely the cooling due to the onset of the Ice Age.

Epidemic hypothesis

The mammoth is an extinct animal, but it is very difficult to say why this species disappeared from the face of the Earth. There is another theory: American scientists Preston Max and Ross McPhee hypothesized that the cause could be an epidemic. The people who then shared territory with mammoths were able to adapt and survive. And it was more difficult for animals to develop immunity due to their enormous size and clumsiness. When mammoths became infected, they went to water bodies and died there. Scientists have noticed that greatest number The burial places of these animals are located precisely on the banks of rivers and lakes.

However, some finds by archaeologists do not support this hypothesis: scientists often find undigested food in the stomachs of animals, and the remains of grass in the mouths. Apparently, the moment when mammoths became extinct happened completely suddenly.

Invasion from Space

There is another hypothesis about why mammoths became extinct and when. It is believed that they could have been destroyed by a huge comet that collided with the Earth 13 thousand years ago. Because of this comet, researchers believe, people were forced to take up farming. Archaeologists discovered evidence of the collision in southern Turkey. The comet destroyed not only mammoths, but also other types of animals. It was because of this that people had to abandon hunting and gathering and switch to agricultural work.

Disappearance due to incest

There is another theory according to which the last mammoths remaining on the island. Wrangel, became extinct due to inbreeding. This term refers to inbreeding, which results in various deformities and genetic abnormalities. Thus, the extinction of these animals was due to a reduction in genetic diversity. On the territory of the island. There were about 500-1000 individuals living in Wrangel - at least that’s the estimate scientists give. And 500 individuals is the minimum number that is necessary for the survival of any species of endangered animal.

The approximate time when mammoths, or rather the last of their representatives, became extinct is about 4 thousand years ago. However, shortly before the collapse of this population, another small group of animals was struggling to survive on what is now St. Paul's Island. It is located between the coast of Alaska and the Far East.

Why did mammoths become extinct?

In 3rd grade, students study this topic. Children need to have a very clear explanation of the reasons for the disappearance of these animals. Therefore, we can recommend that students and their parents use the main two hypotheses about the disappearance of these ancient animals. However, in addition to two assumptions that mammoths were exterminated by hunters and that they could have disappeared from the face of the Earth due to worsening climatic conditions, homework Other theories can also be covered. For example, extinction due to a comet collision or due to inbreeding.

Arguments against hypotheses

Many archaeologists do not agree with the hypothesis that these animals disappeared due to hunting. For example, about 13 thousand years ago, ancient man had already mastered the entire space of Siberia. However, the time when the last mammoths died out in this territory was about 10 thousand years ago. Researchers note that hunting animals of this size was dangerous and impractical. In addition, installing traps in frozen ground probably took a lot of time and effort, especially considering that it was done using rather primitive tools.

However, other animals also disappeared from the planet at the same time that mammoths became extinct. The history of the world has evidence that during the same era, wild horses that lived in the vastness of America also disappeared. Researchers have a logical question: if mammoths became extinct, why did their contemporaries survive: bison, caribou, musk oxen?

In addition, a wild horse, the tarpan, survived, which was exterminated only in the second half of the 19th century. Despite the abundance of hypotheses, it is believed that the most substantiated theory is the impact of the Ice Age. A study conducted by American scientist Dale Gharty confirms the climate hypothesis. The scientist came to the conclusion about its reliability after studying hundreds of remains of mammoths and people. Mammoths easily carried severe frost, but when it got warmer, the snow froze on their long fur, and this was a real disaster. The fur became an icy shell, which in no way protected the animal from the cold.

Bone disease

Another assumption was made by scientists who conducted a study of the remains of animals found in Kemerovo region. Archaeologists believe that mammoths could have disappeared here due to bone disease - there was a decrease in calcium levels in local waters. The animals tried to find salt licks to make up for this deficiency, but this did not help them escape. An ancient man was guarding the weakened mammoths. Each of the hypotheses has the right to exist - after all, if none of the assumptions can be proven, then they cannot be refuted.