MAMMOTH

A mammoth is considered any species of the extinct Elephantid genus, called Mammuthus. They lived from the late Miocene epoch, around 6.2 million years ago, and into the current Holocene epoch, roughly 4,000 years ago. During this timeframe, the species is known to have inhabited various regions across the planet; including Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America. During the Pliocene, roughly 3 million years ago, mammoths first dispersed into Eurasia before eventually migrating into North America roughly 1.5 million years later. Mammoths are distinctly different in their appearance from living elephants in that they typically grew large, spiraling tusks; additionally, later on, mammoths developed cold-weather adaptations of thick, woolly fur, which helped the Ice Age mammal maintain body temperature regulation. The red coated woolly mammoth is thought to have evolved between 700 - 500,000 years ago, in what is now called Siberia. The population of woolly mammoths declined at the end of the Late Pleistocene, with surviving members of mainland Siberia existing until around 10,000 years ago. Small and isolated populations survived on St. Paul Island until 5,600 years ago. Fossil evidence suggests that the last remaining woolly mammoths survived on Russia's Wrangel Island in the Arctic Ocean until as recently as 4,000 years ago, before finally becoming extinct as a species: This means that the Woolly Mammoth’s existence on our planet had once coincided with the earliest foundations of Sumerian and Mesopotamian cultures, as well as the powerful rise of Ancient Egypt and the construction of its Great Pyramids!

MAMMOTH HISTORY

According to The American Heritage Dictionary, the word "mammoth" likely originates from the Mansi languages of western Siberia, with the word “mān-oŋt”, meaning "earth horn", being its primary derivative. Historically, mammoths appear in the folklore of the indigenous people of Siberia, who were impressed by the great size of the animal and its discovered remains: For example, within the mythology of the Evenk people of North Russia, mammoths were said to have been responsible for the creation of the world, where legend has stated that the large animals brought up land from the oceans by digging up the sea floor with their giant tusks; additionally, the Selkup people of Siberia once believed that giant mammoths lived underground and helped as guardians of the underworld.

Around the year 1725, in the American colonies, enslaved Africans digging within the vicinity of the Stono River of South Carolina unearthed molar teeth belonging to what is now identified as the Columbian mammoth. The remains were subsequently examined by British naturalist, Mark Catesby, who visited the site. While the slave owners were baffled by the objects, many suggesting that they must have originated from “The Great Flood” of the Bible, Catesby took note of the fact that the slaves unanimously agreed upon the fact that the remains must be fossil teeth of African elephants, similar to those from their homeland. Catesby went on to concur with the African Elephant theory, marking the first technical identification of any Elephantidae fossils within the North American continent. However, this wouldn’t be the first and last identification of mammoth fossils within North America, as there have been many additional recoveries found, examined, and verified. These recoveries range from the northern most parts of Alaska, into the continental breadbasket of Nebraska and Kansas, all the way to the Tultepec pits near Mexico City, in the high central Mexican plateau.

There are currently no living species of wild Elephantidae within the North American continent; however, in the year 1861, they nearly had their shot at a western hemisphere comeback, when the emerging Western power, the United States, was to be gifted a pair of breading elephants from the King of Siam, now known as Thailand. As the story goes, King Somdetch Phra Paramendr Maha Mongkut, was so pleased with President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Act, which abolished African - American slavery, that he offered several gifts of appreciation and reverence; including two elephants, a male and a female, for the purpose of populating the large animal within the Southern most parts of the United States. King Mongkut was sincere in his intention and believed that if the elephants were to be successfully bred, domesticated, and distributed across the continent, that they may have been a new and useful farm aid replacement during America’s post emancipation efforts. The gesture was ultimately met with appreciation, but also rejection, as President Lincoln turned down the offer in a letter, dated February 3rd of 1862, explaining to the King of Siam that, “Our political jurisdiction, however, does not reach a latitude so low as to favor the multiplication of the elephant, and steam on land, as well as on water, has been our best and most efficient agent of transportation in internal commerce.”

MAMMOTH AND MAN CO-EXISTENCE

Fascinatingly, there is much evidence to suggest that mammoths and hominins, or early humans, may have regularly interacted over the last 1.8 million years. The best examples of evidence include a number of mammoth bones from the Dmanisi site in Georgia, which have been discovered to possess cut marks, which are suggested to be left as a result of butchery by archaic humans. Additionally, many fossil evidences have been discovered from within the timeline of the Last Glacial Period, roughly 115,000 through 11,000 years ago; evidence examples from this period consist of early cave-art depictions of modern humans hunting herds of mammoth; as well as numerous findings of tools, art, and structures made entirely from mammoth bone. Additionally, there have been recent and interesting findings discovered within the U.S state of Alaska, which suggests a theory that Paleoindians of the Ice Age may have followed, manipulated or, possibly, domesticated herding patterns of the woolly mammoths that once crossed The Bering Land Bridge; however, this research is still in findings and theory development processes.