The Evolution and Extinction of Mammoths - Term Paper Example

Mammoths, belonging to the genus “Mammuthus”, were very gigantic in comparison to their taxonomic category of elephants. They reached heights up to thirteen feet and weighed around 5 to 6 tons. They had a significant appearance as they had woolly bodies and huge curvy tusks. They were fearless creatures of their era and lived dominantly on the planet until they suffered extinction. As stated earlier, mammoths suffered extinction around ten thousand years back, most of their characteristic features, physical appearance, art of living, and so forth are known by the scientists to a great extent as there are plenty of fossils preserved of these titans which are regularly discovered, studied and examined with scrutiny to know more about these prehistoric animals.

Mammoths are not as old as dinosaurs, but the interesting analogy that they share is that both these creatures were gigantic, powerful and dominant in their respective eras, and unfortunately both the creatures were wiped out of the planet due to extinction. It is interesting to note that as mammoths came long after the dinosaurs, because of this their fossils still remain preserved, though not in a very large quantity but plenty enough for scientist to provide a logical explanation for the events, characteristics, and environmental changes prevailed in that era, providing scientists an edge to study and know more about mammoths.

With the use of cutting-edge technology that contemporary field of science offers, scientist are able have an in-depth analysis of the skin, tusks, hair, etc to unveil the mystery of mammoths. Last of the mammoths lived in the era when humans were in the Stone Age, and only began their ascent to civilization; hence they both coexisted in the same age. Mammoths were mammals; they produced babies, fed them milk, and nurtured them like other mammals do. It is important to note that mammoths and modern elephants do look the same in terms of size, appearance, and other exterior features, but reality is far different as mammoths were not the ancestors of elephants.

Most type of mammoths wore a hairy cover over their bodies unlike elephants, as it provided mammoths a shelter against extremely harsh environment of the Ice Age. Both mammoths and elephants belong to the same family but were not the ancestors, instead they evolved from a different branch of the tree. Hence it would be more logical to call them as “close cousins”. Origins and evolving characteristics Major transformations through evolution include M. meridionalis (ancestral mammoth) into M.

trogontherii (steppi mammoth), which later transformed into M. primigenius (woolly mammoth) and M. columbi (Columbian mammoth). All these transformations were a result of changes and adaptations to the Ice Age habitat. The origins of these titans date back to almost fifty-five million years ago. Their ancestry can be traced back to Africa where they first existed, later on they moved to Europe, Siberia and then reached North America. As the period of the Ice Age became harsher, it had greatly impacted the features of these creatures and caused them to undergo transformations that best suited to the climate and environment they lived in.

In Europe first mammoths dwelled nearly one and a half million years back, in thickly forested areas of southern