Woolly mammoth: almost everything you know about it is not true (9 photos)

You imagine it, and dozens of other images unfold in your head: harsh but fragrant tundra-steppes, huge cave lions and scattered tribes of people who cling to life with animal fury in an evil and inhospitable world. But any legendary image is created from myths closely intertwined with truth. And the mammoth was no exception.





How good I am, how powerful my teeth are!

The biggest problem lies in its size. People usually think that mammoths were huge, second only to the indricotherium, the largest mammals that ever roamed the land. At first glance, it sounds plausible: after all, a mammoth could reach 3.5 meters in height, which sounds very impressive.



Most animals have two layers of fur: guard hairs and undercoat. But mammoths managed to grow an intermediate layer as well. Well, if you want to live in the north, you'll have to find a way.

However, compared to the African savanna elephant, it doesn't look very impressive, since the latter's maximum height is close to 4 meters! On the other hand, although the mammoth did not surpass ordinary elephants in height, it certainly outdid them in width. The average weight of a mammoth reached 8 tons, compared to 6 tons for African elephants. And the long, three-layered wool hanging from the sides made the ancient titans even more massive.





Admit it, you also imagined a five-meter titan, right?

Perhaps the woolly mammoth is capable of competing with modern proboscideans in size. But by the standards of other mammoths, our hairy comrade was frankly small! It was inferior not only to its ancestral species, the southern mammoths, but also to its "brothers": the steppe, Columbian and imperial mammoths. Their height fluctuated between 4 and 5 meters, and their weight was between 10 and 13 tons. In fact, the Siberian looked good only against the background of dwarf forms of mammoths!



Maybe we should feed it some plant food?



This is a life-size female woolly mammoth. Even some modern elephants look bigger!

Well, at least the laurels of the discoverer of America are still his. His?

Alas, here too is a bummer. At one time, woolly mammoths really did migrate to North America along the Bering Isthmus and even inhabited the territory of the southern states of the USA. But they were unable to advance further due to competition from Columbian mammoths, which were perfectly adapted to local conditions. And Columbian mammoths, in turn, are descendants of southern mammoths that made their way to America about 1.5 million years ago. A million years before woolly mammoths appeared in the New World!



– Stasyan, where are you going, there’s only one ocean there! – I’m not Stas anymore, call me Columbus!

So what does this mean? Are all the achievements of woolly mammoths a lie? Are they not the biggest, not the first, and, it turns out, not the most interesting? Maybe so, but at the same time, woolly mammoths were the most influential trunk-bearers on the planet!

Unlike their specialized relatives, woolly mammoths had a much larger range. During the interglacial periods, the northern border of their habitat ran right into the Arctic Ocean. And during the most severe glaciations, the animals spread to the territories of Mexico, Kazakhstan and southern Spain!



Kazakh mammoths herd Kazakh reindeer. What you can't see during the Ice Age!

The woolly mammoth was not only the most widespread, but also the most numerous. In the territory of Northern Alaska alone, there lived a population whose number numbered from 42 to 80 thousand individuals. And this was only a small piece of the range, most of the animals lived in Eurasia! With their mere presence, such crowds of giants supported the existence of the boreal steppes - unique ecosystems that completely disappeared along with the death of the megafauna.



And I told you that growth is not the main thing!

Even after they died out, woolly mammoths left behind a huge legacy. According to scientists, there are still about 500 thousand tons of bones and tusks of majestic animals in Siberian permafrost. In the 17th and 18th centuries, it reached the point of absurdity: the British Empire, with its African colonies and renewable elephant populations, produced less ivory than teams of Siberian men with picks and shovels! On average, it exported 20-25 tons of mammoth tusks per year. At least the same amount remained within the country. Entire generations of merchants, prospectors, and bone carvers grew up on the remains of giants. Isn't this proof of the former greatness of mammoths?



A lot of excavations are being carried out in Yakutia. The permafrost preserves the bodies and bones in perfect condition.