21 July 2025
On our earlier journey to Finland we visited Kuopio Museum the place one of many foremost points of interest is the woolly mammoth duplicate, above. Unveiled in 1999, he was modeled after a well-preserved frozen mammoth present in 1799 in Siberia’s Lena River valley. At its demise the frozen mammoth was about 30 years previous, weighed 5,000 to five,500 kilos (greater than 2.5 tons) and stood over three meters (over 10 ft) on the shoulder[1]. For a way of scale that’s my husband gazing on the mammoth.
Once I noticed the Kuopio mammoth I couldn’t assist however consider a 2006 New Yorker cartoon by Alex Gregory that exhibits a caveman and his spouse a slain beast he’d introduced dwelling for dinner. And he or she says, “That is mastodon. I advised you to get mammoth.”(<– Click on the hyperlink to see the cartoon) Her buying criticism has stayed with me ever since and made me surprise in regards to the animals.
- Have been mammoths and mastodons alive on the identical time?
- Did their ranges overlap? If that’s the case, the place?
- Did people encounter each beasts?
- Supposing #3 is true, how did Mrs. Caveman inform the distinction between a mammoth and a mastodon?
Mammoths (Mammuthus sp.) are 4 evolutionary splits away from a standard ancestor with mastodons, and so they have a dwelling relative, the Asian elephant (Elephas maximus). Mastodons (Mammut sp.) had been a stand alone department that went extinct with out splitting into descendants.
1. Have been woolly mammoths and American mastodons alive on the identical time? Sure.
Woolly mammoths (Mammuthus primigenius) first developed from steppe mammoths in jap Siberia round 700,000 to 300,000 years in the past and unfold throughout northern Asia, Europe, and North America. Most of them went extinct 11,000 years in the past. The final inhabitants remained on Wrangel Island within the Arctic Ocean and went extinct 4,000 years in the past.
Mastodons (Mammut sp.) first appeared round 27 to 30 million years in the past. A well-known species, Mammut americanus, grew to become widespread in North America throughout the Pleistocene Epoch (2.78 million to 11,000 years in the past) and went extinct about 11,000 years in the past.
2. Did their ranges overlap and the place? Sure. Notably in North America.
The woolly mammoth had a circumpolar vary as proven on this map from arcticportal.org. Amazingly mammoths had been current in each southern Finland and Pittsburgh (prime fringe of map). (Click on on the picture to see an annotated model that factors to each places.)
I’ve been unable to discover a vary map for mastodons however this fossil website map of two species, M. americanum and M. pacificus, exhibits that mastodons had been extensively distributed in North America. The northern a part of their vary would have overlapped with the woolly mammoth.
3. Did people encounter each beasts? Sure. A Wikipedia excerpt about mastodons explains that they killed each. With so many woolly mammoth kill websites in comparison with mastodons, did Clovis individuals desire mammoths? Or had been they only simpler to catch?
As of current, 2 particular Mammut [mastodon] kill websites suitable with Clovis lithic expertise have been recorded in comparison with 15 of Mammuthus [woolly mammoth] and 1 of Cuvieronius [yet another elephant relative].
And their tooth had been noticeably totally different. See the Nationwide Park Service’s Mastodon or Mammoth article for particulars. Mrs. Caveman knew what she was speaking about.
[1] This portion of the opening paragraph is paraphrased from Wikipedia: Kuopio Museum.
