1 00:00:01,840 --> 00:00:07,640 Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey brain Stuff 2 00:00:07,720 --> 00:00:12,959 Speaker 1: Lauren Vohlabam. Here travel back in time around four thousand 3 00:00:13,039 --> 00:00:16,440 Speaker 1: years to a remote Russian Arctic island, and you might 4 00:00:16,480 --> 00:00:19,760 Speaker 1: see a few shaggy brown quadrupeds with trunks tugging up 5 00:00:19,800 --> 00:00:22,600 Speaker 1: tufts of grassy ground cover and shoving them into their 6 00:00:22,640 --> 00:00:27,120 Speaker 1: tusked mouths. But despite their four stout legs and thin 7 00:00:27,160 --> 00:00:31,120 Speaker 1: whipping tails, you would never mistake them for hairy elephants. 8 00:00:32,120 --> 00:00:34,919 Speaker 1: Sure if your glasses broke on the trip, you might 9 00:00:34,960 --> 00:00:38,120 Speaker 1: miss the distinctive downward slope of their backs, the finger 10 00:00:38,240 --> 00:00:40,920 Speaker 1: like grippers on the ends of their trunks, and their small, 11 00:00:41,040 --> 00:00:46,120 Speaker 1: cold adapted tail and ears. But no amount of astigmatism 12 00:00:46,200 --> 00:00:48,760 Speaker 1: could make you miss the fact that these animals aren't 13 00:00:48,800 --> 00:00:52,839 Speaker 1: much taller than you. You have found the Wrangel Island mammoths, 14 00:00:53,120 --> 00:00:56,520 Speaker 1: the dwarf descendant of the wooly mammoth. They are the 15 00:00:56,640 --> 00:01:02,480 Speaker 1: last of their Kindlike the twenty five percent larger woolies 16 00:01:02,520 --> 00:01:05,319 Speaker 1: that in their heyday numbered in the several millions across 17 00:01:05,319 --> 00:01:10,080 Speaker 1: Eurasia and North America, these diminutive descendants survived the roughly 18 00:01:10,240 --> 00:01:13,240 Speaker 1: north to south Domino of extinction that had finished off 19 00:01:13,280 --> 00:01:16,319 Speaker 1: so many large mammals more than six thousand years earlier. 20 00:01:17,360 --> 00:01:20,480 Speaker 1: They walked Wrangle Island when humans were building pyramids in 21 00:01:20,520 --> 00:01:25,880 Speaker 1: Egypt and constructing Stonehenge in Great Britain, but soon, perhaps 22 00:01:25,920 --> 00:01:28,720 Speaker 1: done in by the same forces that killed their ancestors, 23 00:01:28,880 --> 00:01:32,319 Speaker 1: a likely climate change, human hunting, or some combination of 24 00:01:32,360 --> 00:01:38,240 Speaker 1: the two, time would catch up with them as well. 25 00:01:38,440 --> 00:01:41,800 Speaker 1: We probably know more about wooly mammoths and mammos in 26 00:01:41,840 --> 00:01:46,240 Speaker 1: general than we do about any other extinct species. Compared 27 00:01:46,240 --> 00:01:49,040 Speaker 1: to the last dinosaurs, which died out around sixty five 28 00:01:49,080 --> 00:01:53,360 Speaker 1: million years ago, Mammoths only recently shuffled off this mortal coil, 29 00:01:54,000 --> 00:01:57,440 Speaker 1: recently enough that ancient humans hunted them, ate them, used 30 00:01:57,480 --> 00:01:59,880 Speaker 1: their ivory for tools, and depicted them in some of 31 00:02:00,080 --> 00:02:04,000 Speaker 1: the earliest known sculpture in cave art. They are well 32 00:02:04,040 --> 00:02:08,280 Speaker 1: preserved remains, which at times consist of complete carcasses, pickled 33 00:02:08,320 --> 00:02:13,320 Speaker 1: and frozen anaerobic soils can contain muscle, blood, teeth, bone, tusk, 34 00:02:13,600 --> 00:02:17,799 Speaker 1: and even brain. We've even recovered and sequenced mammoth DNA. 35 00:02:20,120 --> 00:02:23,200 Speaker 1: What's more, we have three living, albeit distant cousins to 36 00:02:23,200 --> 00:02:26,840 Speaker 1: compare them with the African bush and African forest elephant, 37 00:02:27,080 --> 00:02:30,560 Speaker 1: and the Asian elephant, which is the mammoth's closest living relative. 38 00:02:31,720 --> 00:02:34,840 Speaker 1: By combining what we know about modern elephants with evidence 39 00:02:34,880 --> 00:02:38,360 Speaker 1: from the wooly mammth fossils, preserved stool and gut contents, 40 00:02:38,400 --> 00:02:41,720 Speaker 1: and other physical evidence, we can confidently paint a picture 41 00:02:41,720 --> 00:02:45,160 Speaker 1: of what these wooly wonders were really like and how 42 00:02:45,160 --> 00:02:48,799 Speaker 1: they worked. So today, let's jump back in that time 43 00:02:48,880 --> 00:02:52,040 Speaker 1: machine and see what life was like when mammoths roamed 44 00:02:52,080 --> 00:02:57,480 Speaker 1: the earth. Wooly mammoths roamed landscapes unlike any that exist today. 45 00:02:58,480 --> 00:03:01,679 Speaker 1: During many parts of the Pleistocene, an epoch lasting from 46 00:03:01,720 --> 00:03:04,839 Speaker 1: one point seven million to eleven thousand, five hundred years 47 00:03:04,840 --> 00:03:07,880 Speaker 1: ago and ending with the most recent Ice Age, a 48 00:03:08,040 --> 00:03:11,960 Speaker 1: mixture of rich and varied grasses, herbs, and sedges spread 49 00:03:11,960 --> 00:03:15,320 Speaker 1: from Ireland to Siberia, across the Bearing Land Bridge and 50 00:03:15,440 --> 00:03:20,240 Speaker 1: too much of modern Canada. This mammoth step was supported 51 00:03:20,320 --> 00:03:24,280 Speaker 1: by a different climate. As growing glaciers locked up, water 52 00:03:24,560 --> 00:03:28,440 Speaker 1: sea levels dropped, exposing great swaths of land dominated by 53 00:03:28,639 --> 00:03:34,440 Speaker 1: clear and breezy blue skies. Grazing across this landscape in 54 00:03:34,480 --> 00:03:37,520 Speaker 1: a twenty hour a day pursuit of food were vast 55 00:03:37,640 --> 00:03:40,920 Speaker 1: numbers of wooly mammoths and creatures about the size of 56 00:03:40,960 --> 00:03:45,520 Speaker 1: modern elephants. The males grazed alone, each standing around nine 57 00:03:45,600 --> 00:03:48,160 Speaker 1: to eleven feet tall that's three to four meters and 58 00:03:48,320 --> 00:03:52,680 Speaker 1: weighing about six tons. They ranged near matriarchal family groups 59 00:03:52,680 --> 00:03:57,240 Speaker 1: of around ten to twenty smaller females and calves. They 60 00:03:57,280 --> 00:04:01,040 Speaker 1: withstood the chill of their northern climes through number of adaptations, 61 00:04:01,280 --> 00:04:04,559 Speaker 1: including a four inch layer of fat that's ten centimeters 62 00:04:04,800 --> 00:04:08,360 Speaker 1: and an inch of thick oily skin. They had a 63 00:04:08,440 --> 00:04:11,960 Speaker 1: wooly undercoat layered with coarser guard hairs ranging from a 64 00:04:12,000 --> 00:04:14,760 Speaker 1: few inches up to three feet that's one meter long, 65 00:04:15,120 --> 00:04:17,440 Speaker 1: with the longest hanging in a skirt along the animal's 66 00:04:17,440 --> 00:04:22,039 Speaker 1: flanks and belly. Even their hemoglobin had heat retaining properties, 67 00:04:22,200 --> 00:04:27,320 Speaker 1: a trait echoed in many modern cold adapted mammals. Wooly 68 00:04:27,360 --> 00:04:31,000 Speaker 1: mammoths shared these lands with other massive mammals, including grazers 69 00:04:31,040 --> 00:04:34,080 Speaker 1: like wily rhinoceros and long horde bison, and predators like 70 00:04:34,120 --> 00:04:39,120 Speaker 1: sabertoothed cats and cave hyenas. Given their bulk and massive tusks, 71 00:04:39,360 --> 00:04:42,040 Speaker 1: health the adult mammoths could take all comers in a fight, 72 00:04:42,560 --> 00:04:45,840 Speaker 1: especially if gathered in a protective group, so predators likely 73 00:04:45,880 --> 00:04:48,520 Speaker 1: preyed on sick or injured adults or picked off the 74 00:04:48,560 --> 00:04:55,320 Speaker 1: occasional straggling calf. If, as experts suspect, mammoths were similar 75 00:04:55,360 --> 00:04:59,760 Speaker 1: to today's elephants, then they were likely highly social, educating their 76 00:04:59,800 --> 00:05:03,840 Speaker 1: cat and maybe even guarding and burying their dead. They 77 00:05:03,839 --> 00:05:07,240 Speaker 1: may have periodically come together in great migratory herds and 78 00:05:07,279 --> 00:05:09,960 Speaker 1: could probably swim to islands a few miles off shore. 79 00:05:11,839 --> 00:05:15,120 Speaker 1: Mammoth calves were mostly born in spring, when fresh growth 80 00:05:15,120 --> 00:05:19,479 Speaker 1: could support lactating mothers. A twenty two month gestation period 81 00:05:19,600 --> 00:05:23,240 Speaker 1: meant that conception occurred in the late summer. The competing 82 00:05:23,240 --> 00:05:26,720 Speaker 1: males would demonstrate their fitness via tusk displays, the ritualistic 83 00:05:26,760 --> 00:05:32,640 Speaker 1: sparring or out and out fights. Beyond fighting, a mammoth's twisted, 84 00:05:32,760 --> 00:05:36,320 Speaker 1: inward curling tusks were also handy for stripping and felling 85 00:05:36,360 --> 00:05:41,120 Speaker 1: trees or shovel plowing through dirt and snow. Evolved from 86 00:05:41,120 --> 00:05:44,320 Speaker 1: the mammoth's upper incisors, these tusks would grow throughout the 87 00:05:44,320 --> 00:05:47,840 Speaker 1: animal's lifetime. The rest of its teeth consisted of foot 88 00:05:47,880 --> 00:05:51,240 Speaker 1: long molars with side to side grooves that aided in 89 00:05:51,279 --> 00:05:55,600 Speaker 1: breaking down its tough food. Like today's elephants, a mammoth 90 00:05:55,640 --> 00:05:58,000 Speaker 1: would go through six sets of teeth in its sixty 91 00:05:58,080 --> 00:06:03,720 Speaker 1: year lifespan, but typically dying after the last set wore out. 92 00:06:03,920 --> 00:06:06,919 Speaker 1: A wooly mammoths are one of a number of large herbivores, 93 00:06:07,000 --> 00:06:11,080 Speaker 1: including mastodons, elephants, and other mammoth species descended from the 94 00:06:11,120 --> 00:06:15,640 Speaker 1: primitive Probosideans, named for a Greek word meaning nose, which 95 00:06:15,760 --> 00:06:18,200 Speaker 1: all split off from the general ma million tree around 96 00:06:18,279 --> 00:06:22,279 Speaker 1: fifty five million years ago. The first mammoths showed up 97 00:06:22,320 --> 00:06:25,080 Speaker 1: in Africa around five to six million years ago, but 98 00:06:25,320 --> 00:06:29,200 Speaker 1: they weren't wooly. The probable ancestor of the wooly mammoth, 99 00:06:29,320 --> 00:06:32,960 Speaker 1: the step mammoth, may have originated in northeastern Eurasia around 100 00:06:33,000 --> 00:06:36,159 Speaker 1: two million years ago. It was the largest of its kind, 101 00:06:36,560 --> 00:06:40,120 Speaker 1: standing fourteen feet that's four point three meters and weighing 102 00:06:40,240 --> 00:06:44,400 Speaker 1: at least ten tons. It sported smallish ears and tail, 103 00:06:44,560 --> 00:06:47,679 Speaker 1: and a bit of a shaggy coat. Primarily a grazer, 104 00:06:47,880 --> 00:06:52,440 Speaker 1: it also supplemented its diet with trees and shrubs. The 105 00:06:52,640 --> 00:06:56,719 Speaker 1: comparatively smaller wooly mammoth, established around four hundred thousand years ago, 106 00:06:57,200 --> 00:07:00,640 Speaker 1: likely resulted from specializations suited for the chill of Siberia, 107 00:07:01,440 --> 00:07:04,440 Speaker 1: and it was from this ice box that botanist Michael 108 00:07:04,520 --> 00:07:07,920 Speaker 1: Adams recovered the first wooly mammoth carcass in eighteen oh six. 109 00:07:09,160 --> 00:07:12,200 Speaker 1: But the species spread as far as modern Ireland and 110 00:07:12,280 --> 00:07:15,280 Speaker 1: crossed the Bering Strait to continue across Canada to the 111 00:07:15,320 --> 00:07:20,720 Speaker 1: eastern coast of North America. Their population was highly adaptable 112 00:07:20,800 --> 00:07:25,440 Speaker 1: to the fluctuations in climate that characterized the Pleistocene, yet 113 00:07:25,640 --> 00:07:29,200 Speaker 1: within the brief period spanning from fourteen thousand to ten 114 00:07:29,240 --> 00:07:33,280 Speaker 1: thousand years ago, they and most other large mammal species 115 00:07:33,320 --> 00:07:40,600 Speaker 1: in the northern Hemisphere died out. But why Paleontologists have 116 00:07:40,600 --> 00:07:46,040 Speaker 1: advanced several theories, including meteors, diseases, climate change, and human hunting, 117 00:07:47,160 --> 00:07:50,600 Speaker 1: but there's no evidence of meteor strikes, and any potential 118 00:07:50,600 --> 00:07:54,600 Speaker 1: disease that killed megafauna likely would have affected other animals too, 119 00:07:55,640 --> 00:08:02,000 Speaker 1: so that leaves climate and hunting. According to the climate hypothesis, 120 00:08:02,200 --> 00:08:05,600 Speaker 1: mammoth's very specialization that let them thrive in their step 121 00:08:05,680 --> 00:08:10,880 Speaker 1: environment may have doomed them to isolization and starvation. As 122 00:08:10,920 --> 00:08:14,240 Speaker 1: the climate shift melted glaciers and raised sea levels, cotton 123 00:08:14,240 --> 00:08:18,760 Speaker 1: and shrength and wetter conditions prevailed. Their food sources dwindled, 124 00:08:18,920 --> 00:08:25,800 Speaker 1: and mammoth populations declined with them. The hunting hypothesis emphasizes 125 00:08:25,840 --> 00:08:29,680 Speaker 1: the fact that mammoths shockingly fast decline coincides with the 126 00:08:29,920 --> 00:08:33,800 Speaker 1: generally accepted arrival of humans in North America from thirteen thousand, 127 00:08:33,800 --> 00:08:37,960 Speaker 1: three hundred to twelve eight hundred years ago. We know 128 00:08:38,040 --> 00:08:41,200 Speaker 1: that humans used mammoth firs, meat and ivory, and that 129 00:08:41,240 --> 00:08:45,559 Speaker 1: both Neanderthals and Stone Age humans constructed buildings from mammoth bone, 130 00:08:46,960 --> 00:08:50,800 Speaker 1: but many questions remain. Given that many humans could have 131 00:08:50,880 --> 00:08:54,760 Speaker 1: survived on a single mammoth, especially aided by natural refrigeration, 132 00:08:55,320 --> 00:08:58,439 Speaker 1: and that early humans venerated the animals in cave art, 133 00:08:59,000 --> 00:09:01,960 Speaker 1: it's possible that they traded mammoths with the reverence and 134 00:09:02,000 --> 00:09:07,200 Speaker 1: restraint that Native Americans had for buffalo. Either way, hunter 135 00:09:07,280 --> 00:09:10,679 Speaker 1: gatherers likely had a varied diet and relied on small 136 00:09:10,720 --> 00:09:13,920 Speaker 1: to medium game for meat, so how often they actually 137 00:09:14,040 --> 00:09:20,880 Speaker 1: hunted mammoths versus scavenging their remains is unclear. Ultimately, the 138 00:09:20,960 --> 00:09:24,320 Speaker 1: limitations of large mammals like mammoths, with their low birth 139 00:09:24,440 --> 00:09:27,840 Speaker 1: rates and vast need for sustenance, might well have hastened 140 00:09:27,840 --> 00:09:31,800 Speaker 1: to their end, worsening the effects of isolation, habitat, loss, 141 00:09:31,840 --> 00:09:37,800 Speaker 1: and predation. But could we bring the wooly mammoth back? 142 00:09:39,280 --> 00:09:42,680 Speaker 1: DNA is fragile and has a limited shelf life. We 143 00:09:42,679 --> 00:09:46,800 Speaker 1: could never clone dinosaurs a la Jurassic Park, but given 144 00:09:46,840 --> 00:09:50,560 Speaker 1: the excellent preservation and recent age of some mammoth remains, 145 00:09:50,920 --> 00:09:54,120 Speaker 1: we could theoretically clone a mammoth or breed one through 146 00:09:54,120 --> 00:09:58,520 Speaker 1: in vitro fertilization using elephant ovum modified or fertilized with 147 00:09:58,559 --> 00:10:05,640 Speaker 1: mammoth genetic material. Both approaches entail complex ethical and practical concerns. 148 00:10:06,920 --> 00:10:10,440 Speaker 1: After all, the environment that wooly mammoths lived in is gone, 149 00:10:11,160 --> 00:10:13,640 Speaker 1: so where would they live? What would they be able 150 00:10:13,679 --> 00:10:16,400 Speaker 1: to eat? If we bring them back just to keep 151 00:10:16,400 --> 00:10:19,560 Speaker 1: them as curiosities and zoos? What kind of life is that? 152 00:10:21,920 --> 00:10:24,920 Speaker 1: If we look at their living cousins, the elephants, they're 153 00:10:24,960 --> 00:10:29,520 Speaker 1: a keystone species in their ecosystems. Their movements and activities 154 00:10:29,600 --> 00:10:33,600 Speaker 1: create habitat for other animals and natural fire breaks, and 155 00:10:33,800 --> 00:10:37,480 Speaker 1: their dung feeds. Numerous species spread seeds and changes the 156 00:10:37,480 --> 00:10:41,559 Speaker 1: makeup of the soil. When an animal like that dies out, 157 00:10:41,760 --> 00:10:46,360 Speaker 1: it sends thunderous impacts throughout the ecosystem, and bringing such 158 00:10:46,360 --> 00:10:51,160 Speaker 1: an animal back would be equally thunderous. It seems more 159 00:10:51,160 --> 00:10:55,520 Speaker 1: practical and more kind to focus on preserving the amazing 160 00:10:55,559 --> 00:10:59,280 Speaker 1: species that we have alive today and honoring the extinct 161 00:10:59,280 --> 00:11:07,880 Speaker 1: ones by further extinctions. Today's episode is based on the 162 00:11:08,000 --> 00:11:10,720 Speaker 1: article how Wooly Mammoth's worked on how stuffworks dot com, 163 00:11:10,800 --> 00:11:13,920 Speaker 1: written by Nicholas Jarbis. Brain Stuff is production by Heart 164 00:11:13,960 --> 00:11:16,160 Speaker 1: Radio in partnership with how stuffworks dot Com, and it's 165 00:11:16,160 --> 00:11:19,559 Speaker 1: produced by Tyler Klang. For more podcasts my heart Radio, 166 00:11:19,800 --> 00:11:22,959 Speaker 1: visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen 167 00:11:23,000 --> 00:11:25,359 Speaker 1: to your favorite shows.