...The Extinction of the Woolly Mammoth Lee Rhubin English Composition II Instructor J. Kobus 10/25/2010 Abstract There have been many theories and hypotheses explaining why the woolly mammoth became extinct. In fact, there are ongoing studies and research attempting to offer more evidence for the different theories. While evidence from the remains and carcasses of woolly mammoths found frozen in the northern parts of the globe strengthen the claims of scientists and researchers, other methods of knowing the real causes are still elusive. Two main arguments aimed at explaining these mammals’ extinction continue to be debated. Climate change as the reason for their demise is countered by the theory that human hunting activities killed the species. However, there are some hypotheses that the combination of both (climate and hunting) is the cause of the woolly mammoth’s extinction. This paper provides the evidence that each theory has gathered to support its claim. The Extinction of the Woolly Mammoth The woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) is one of the kinds of mammoths that existed. This animal is actually considered an elephant but in reality it is only a distant cousin of the Asian elephant. Its body was covered with hair. Its shoulders were emphatically humped, with a sloping back. The ears were much smaller than the ordinary elephants we see today, with a shorter tail. Teeth were differently shaped and structured; the trunk was shorter and hairier with...
Words: 2493 - Pages: 10
...De-extinction is the process of bringing bringing back animals.It sounds like a scientific term to bring animals back like the wooly mammoths.We need to bring them back because they are like elephants and a lot of people never have seen them in real life except for cavemen.I think that this is a very good idea. First we need to research to find the evidence that mammoths are very important and that we need to bring them back.George Church says de-extinction is a good idea.”Mammoths could keep the region colder by eating dead grass thus engaging the sum to reach spring grass whose deep roots prevents erosion” (Church,G.,2013).This is telling us that in the hot summer the mammoths could eat some dead grass and then they would cool us down a little bit for us people and them.This will help the temperature.”Scientist could bring mammoths back to life by targeting and replacing the specific genomic sequences in a closely related living species” (Draxler,B., 2013).They would be able to bring them back for people to see and to replace them with other animals that are about to go extinct....
Words: 434 - Pages: 2
...The woolly mammoth lived over half a million years ago, but became extinct 4,000 years ago after a slow decline in numbers. We are able to study the reason for the mass extinction of these beasts through different proxy methods, such as tree rings, pollen and sediment preserves and archaeological evidence, to understand the demise of what was once a highly successful species. Archaeological evidence makes it clear that the woolly mammoth was well adapted to its ice-age environment. Cave paintings from the early modern human being in the caves of Southern France provide a representation of the woolly mammoth’s appearance. Their long, arched tusks provided means to dig for roots and tubers in the frozen ground, and their cheek-teeth with up...
Words: 990 - Pages: 4
...The woolly mammoth was the last species of the genus. Most populations of the woolly mammoth in North America and Eurasia, as well all the Columbian mammoths in North America, died out around the time of the last glacial retreat, as part of a mass extinction ofmegafauna in northern Eurasia and the Americas. Until recently, the last woolly mammoths were generally assumed to have vanished from Europe and southern Siberia about 10,000 BC, but new findings show some were still present there about 8000 BC. Only slightly later, the woolly mammoths also disappeared from continental northern Siberia.[5] A small population survived on St. Paul Island, Alaska, up until 3,750 BC,[2][6][7] and the small[8] mammoths of Wrangel Island survived until 1,650 BC.[9][10][11] A definitive explanation for their mass extinction has yet to be agreed upon. The warming trend (Holocene) that occurred 12,000 years ago, accompanied by a glacial retreat and rising sea levels, has been suggested as a contributing factor. Forests replaced openwoodlands and grasslands across the continent. The available habitat may have been reduced for some megafaunal species, such as the mammoth. However, such climate changes were nothing new; numerous very similar warming episodes had occurred previously within the ice age of the last several million years without producing comparable megafaunal extinctions, so climate alone is unlikely to have played a decisive role.[12][13] The spread of advanced human hunters through...
Words: 591 - Pages: 3
...Do you think scientist should bring back the wooly mammoth? I do not think so! There are so many reasons that prove the de-extinction is a bad idea. For example, they can bring back diseases, die again, and mess up the current ecosystem . If these things happen, it would be a disaster! If the woolly mammoth came back they could not have a microbiome that helps them digest food. They might not have this microbiome because scientists can only pull out fragments of the DNA from the mammoth bones. Since they can only get fragments, they can’t bring back the mammoth exactly like it used to be. This could cause the mammoth to lose the microbiome. Without this microbiome, they can’t digest food properly. They will end up dying of starvation and that...
Words: 988 - Pages: 4
...>UCLA Newsroom>All Stories>News Releases Extinction of woolly mammoths may have been due to addition of a predator: humans By David Stauth and Stuart WolpertJuly 01, 2010Category: Research Illustration of sabertooth cat fighting with woolly mammoth. (Credit: Mauricio Anton, courtesy of Oregon State University) The extinction of woolly mammoths and other large mammals more than 10,000 years ago may be explained by the same type of cascade of ecosystem disruption that is being caused today by the global decline of predators such as wolves, cougars and sharks, life scientists report July 1 in the cover article of the journal Bioscience. Then, as now, the cascading events were originally begun by human disruption of ecosystems, a new study concludes, but around 15,000 years ago the problem was not the loss of a key predator, but the addition of one — human hunters with spears. This mass extinction was caused by newly arrived humans tipping the balance of power and competing with major predators such as sabertooth cats, the authors of the new analysis argue. An equilibrium that had survived for thousands of years was disrupted, perhaps explaining the loss of two-thirds of North America's large mammals during this period. "We suggest that the arrival of humans to North America triggered a trophic cascade in which competition for the largest prey was intensified, ultimately causing the large non-human carnivores to decimate the large herbivores," said Blaire Van Valkenburgh...
Words: 1013 - Pages: 5
...evolved to the homologous structure of a Mammoth’s trunk or Proboscis. This particular development of the trunk allowed them to pay attention to their surroundings for predators and other dangers while feeding and drinking, which is an advantage that the primitive Moeritheriums did not have16. Furthermore, it is evident that the 2.5 feet tall Moeritheriums, after they became extinct due to the cooler climates of the Oligocene era, evolved to Mammoths the size of 13 feet9. This was favourable for their environment to keeping warm as larger animals have a smaller surface area to volume ratio and therefore, less heat loss10. In contrast, the African elephant is 10 to 11 feet tall and weighs between 4 and 6 tons, whereas the Asian elephant is 8 to 10 feet tall, weighing 3 to 5 tons9. The Mammoths were more closely related to the Asian elephant, which was demonstrated by Michael Hofreiter and his colleages of the Max Planck Institute in Germany. Their team compared DNA from modern day elephants and DNA extracted from a 33,000 year old frozen mammoth leg found in Siberia 198611. They were compared for their similarity using the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), which has its own genome. As approximately one fifth of a cell contains mitochondria organelles, which each have several copies of these genomes, it is easily extractable for comparison, and is useful for tracing the lineage of a species as it is passed from mother to...
Words: 1142 - Pages: 5
...Many extinct species—from the passenger pigeon to the woolly mammoth—might now be reclassified as "bodily, but not genetically, extinct." They're dead, but their DNA is recoverable from museum specimens and fossils, even those up to 200,000 years old. Thanks to new developments in genetic technology, that DNA may eventually bring the animals back to life. Only species whose DNA is too old to be recovered, such as dinosaurs, are the ones to consider totally extinct, bodily and genetically. Useful science will also emerge. Close examination of the genomes of extinct species can tell us much about what made them vulnerable in the first place. Were they in a bottleneck with too little genetic variability? How were they different from close relatives that survived? Living specimens will reveal even more. Techniques being developed for de-extinction will also be directly applicable to living species that are close to extinction. Tiny populations can have their genetic variability restored. A species with a genetic Achilles' heel might be totally cured with an adjustment introduced through cloning. For instance, the transmissible cancer on the faces of Tasmanian devils is thought to be caused by a single gene. That gene can be silenced in a generation of the animals released to the wild. The cancer would disappear in the wild soon after, because the immune animals won't transmit it, and animals with the immunity will out-reproduce the susceptible until the entire population...
Words: 530 - Pages: 3
...The point was more persuasive and better supported by facts. The point uses different facts and examples to prove their point. The point states the counterpoint and shows why we could progress in technology. The text states, "For instance, people have been critical about the space program since its inception, saying that we would never get anything useful from blasting into the skies. However, [...] NASA administrator Michael Griffin noted that the technology to come out of the space program has greatly improved our lives"(point para 7). The point used an example to show that even though not everyone agreed with it, we didn't know until we tried. In addition, the point uses examples to show that we need some animals that have gone extinct....
Words: 312 - Pages: 2
...De-extinction or not? The ethical dilemmas of cloning extinct species have been a...
Words: 2296 - Pages: 10
...Vic Camp Natural Disasters Study Guide — Extinctions, Impacts, and Volcano science What are tektites? * Natural glass rocks formed by impact of small meteorites on Earth’s surfaceWhat is Iridium? * Rare element in Earth’s crust, but high concentrations of some meteoritesWhat is shocked quartz? * Could only be produced with a strong impact on Earth; found commonly in relation to known meteorite impact sitesIn what way are tektites, Iridium, and shocked quartz related to the K/T extinction event? * In what way are the Deccan and Siberian flood basalt provinces related to mass extinction events? * Which of these is related to the Permian extinction (the greatest mass extinction event of all time)? * Siberian Flood basalt: Permian extinction (95% died). . . which is related to the K/T extinction? * Deccan Flood basalt: K.T. extinction (70% died)What is the anti-podal hypothesis? * The idea that pairs of opposite hot spots may result from the impact of a large meteorWhat geologic time unit (Eon, Era, Period, Epoch) represents the greatest expanse of geologic time? * Eon (An indefinitely long period of time)What is the Era of Ancient Life called? * Paleozoic Era (Age of invertebrates) - 543 m.y.a. . . . the Era of Middle Life? * Mesozoic Era (Age of dinosaurs) - 251 m.y.a.. . . the Era of Recent Life? * Cenozoic Era (Age of mammals) - 65 m.y.a.. . . the age of the Dinosaurs? * Era of Middle Life. . . the age of Mammals? * Era of Recent LifeKnow...
Words: 1260 - Pages: 6
...De-extinction is the process of modifying and transforming genes from today’s animals with extinct ancestors. Scientist take advantage of the three parts of natural genetic variation; mutation, gene flow, and sexual reproduction. Through these different genetic processes, genetic technology changes DNA sequences. The sequences are either replaced, transformed, or taken out, to receive DNA sequences similar to a certain extinct animal the original DNA is an ancestor of. For example, scientist used tissues from today’s goats, and used it to clone a Pyrenean ibex. However, the clone didn't live very long after it’s birth do to lung failure. Other cloning attempts have resulted positively. Even one of the first mammals cloned, Dolly the Sheep,...
Words: 352 - Pages: 2
...Humans have been interested in trying to clone animals that have gone extinct. Jurassic Park is a movie series based on what happens when a scientist did manage to clone these extinct creatures. The DNA of a woolly mammoth has recently been found, and now the discussion of cloning has been back in the media. This has become an important topic that society needs to think about now that technology has continued to advance. Bringing back extinct creatures could become a reality, not just science fiction. Animals that have gone extinct need to stay that way, scientists need to stop focusing our time and money trying to bring them back. It is costing too much money, ignoring other major problems, and not taking into account the diseases these creatures...
Words: 663 - Pages: 3
...The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History details the continued loss of biodiversity that has occurred since the rise of mankind. Elizabeth Kolbert claims that we are now in the midst of a sixth mass extinction, and that, if precautionary measures are not taken, the loss of biodiversity would be catastrophic. Chapter one begins by describing the golden frogs in the town of El Valle de Antón, and how they were beginning to disappear. The frogs disappeared due to a fungus called Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis. This fungus has spread around the world at a lightning-quick rate, killing all sorts of amphibious organisms at an unnatural rate. The cause of the rapid spreading of the fungus has been theorized to be due to humans inadvertently spreading...
Words: 383 - Pages: 2
...megafauna such as the Genera Megatherium, the giant land sloths and Coelodonta, the woolly rhinoceros'. The cause of these extinctions has been debated among the scientific community for decades, whether synonymous with climate change and the large deglaciation at the end of the Pleistocene, or the rise of Homo sapiens, hunting these animals to extinction, dubbed the "Overkill" hypothesis. The evidence for and against each cause is overwhelming, and the reality is much simpler. Overkill Hypothesis: Let us start with the fact that during this period of humanity's migration across the globe, megafauna genera were butchered, North America and South America lost 33 and 46 genera respectively in the last 100,000 years alone (Martin 1984). However, among this great loss another strange trend grew, small fauna at the time, such as rats, did not experience the same sweeping extinction rates as the coexistent megafauna of...
Words: 1336 - Pages: 6
