Mammoths: Titans of the Ice Age
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 18 มิ.ย. 2024
- Among the most iconic extinct animals of all time, the mammoths were an incredibly successful genus of Elephantids that thrived during the Pliocene and Pleistocene. Originating in Africa, mammoths migrated into Eurasia roughly 3 million years ago and conquered that warm savannah ecosystems present there. A few species developed into some of the largest of all Proboscideans, while tiny insular dwarf forms emerged in the Mediterranean and the Channel Islands of California. The iconic Woolly Mammoth first appeared in Asia c. 400,000 years ago, developing a dense furry coat and small ears in order to adapt to the cold conditions of the steppe. These animals dwelt alongside Neanderthals and modern humans, forming an important element of their belief systems and cultures. Recent evidence has demonstrated that mammoths were able to survive on mainland Siberia until c.4000 years ago, as well as persisting on Wrangel Island, still extant while the Great Pyramid of Giza was being constructed in Egypt. A shrinking habitat and pressure from human hunting likely tipped the scales in favour of extinction for the mammoths, with their low population numbers and slow breeding cycles working against them.
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8:58 Fun fact - this illustration is based on a real life find where two Columbian mammoth skeletons were found locked together - almost certainly mature bulls fighting each other. Each male had broken one of his tusks some time before the fight and because these broken tusks were on the same side when the two faced each other, they were able to get much closer than usual, resulting in them getting stuck together with their unbroken tusks. It's believed that, during the struggle to free themselves (to the point where one mammoth ended up impaling his tusk into his opponent's eye socket), they somehow fell together - one may have died and dragged his rival down with him, for example.
Couldn't agree more: saving extant animals from extinction would be a much better deployment of resources and efforts than bringing back already extinct ones! Thanks a lot for sharing this interesting video.
Bringing back extinct animals is more sensational, which means money and resources not normally being placed into conservation can be put there. Advantages in de extinction technology could possible help with conservation of extant endangered animals. Its not a choice of one or the other , we can do both.
Some of my favorite megafauna of all time.
Interesting how their evolutionary path models that of humans in some ats, starting in south Africa before spreading all the way into the new world
That’s a really good point. I hadn’t connected the dots on that myself.
@@dr.polaris6423 I hope you cover Paleoloxodon at some point, in terms of number of species they were just as diverse
Camels did the journey the opposite way...
I'm so glad someone else commented on this!
That dog don't hunt no more - out of Africa is bunk.
Mammoths are probably one of the most interesting megafauna that has ever existed on earth. Something about these iconic creatures has really fascinate me!
Seeing a Mammoth with my own eyes would be worth dying by 34 from a random cut
Personal opinion: African Bush Elephants use their tusks to dig for water, gorge & debark trees and work their patchy mixed environment. Woolly Mammoths long and constant curvature is not about combat. The shape is perfect for clearing snow, digging muddy peat and sedge
and generally working their environment, which is almost all beneath their feet. The tusks are like farm tools
Great Vid Man! - Quality just gets better and better - it is still hard to imagine the last mammoths were contemporaries of ancient egyptians!
I know, it is pretty surreal to imagine!
The evolution of mammoths and their relatives is very interesting. I am happy that it gets a spotlight in this video. Honestly I learn new things from every video you upload so keep up the good work my polar bear friend!
To think that most mammoths are smaller than regular modern African elephants surprises me
Yeah it’s amazing even woolly mammoth or a little bit smaller than African elephants but at least that They’re the same weight
Another Upload by one of my fav utubers
I friggen love this channel! Almost as much as I love these prehistoric elephants. Also, yes, mammoths are true elephants. BTW can you do a video on Paleoloxadon?
So do I.❤️🥰
Of course, Paleoloxodon is a fascinating genus in its own right.
I suspect that if not for humans, mammoths would still be around, BUT in reduced numbers/range compared to during glacials-they’d still be negatively affected, just not to the point of extinction. This is the pattern we see in mammoth populations during prior interglacials.
I'd imagine those hypothetical remnants may have resided in the most remote Siberian forests and few scattered populations in Alaska
I mean who doesn't love Mammoths !
The people that hunted them to extinction duh
@@douglasthescottishtwin3989 oh no they loved them (how they tasted)
Most certainly
Mammut trongotherii and Columbia mammoth were really colossal and majestic Together the Paleoloxodon Namadicus they formed a titanic triad
And Deinotherium too, as well as Stegotetrabelodon and Stegodon
Creating a Mammoth-Elephant hybrid would be extremely beneficial to fighting anthropogenic global warming by restoring the mammoth steppe, Battling diseases in elephants alive today, and benefiting creatures that once inhabited the steppe extensively.
Furthermore, funding of Asian elephant conservation projects and Mammoth de-extinction projects are not mutually exclusive, and both should occur for a healthier planet to be realized.
Fr we can’t fall into false dichotomies that prevent progress, it’s painful enough in politics lol
Completely agree
Geez … as amazing as it would be to see a giant 14-ton mammoth, it would be fascinating to see a tiny 600-lb one, too!
I was promised genetically engineered mammoths when I was in third grade in the year 2000 on a Discovery Channel documentary, and damn it, I want to see genetically engineered mammoths!
Sounds fuckin awesome
ngl, I wasnt a big fan of this channel at first but it has really grown on me and I always watch your videos when I see the notifications, keep up the great work.
I've heard arguments in favour of cloning saying that a new mammoth population could help preserve the Siberian tundra biome, since it fills a large herbivore niche that's empty right now.
I don't know enough to say if that's got any merit, but it's an interesting idea.
I have repeatedly heard that.
That and garsses are better at storing carbon that trees, the idea is that mammoths/ hairy elephant clones can spread the grass lands by knocking trees down. Atls pro has a good video explaining in detail
Is it though? I've heard the environment was quite different when mammoths were around, brutal winters, but also lush summers... whereas now there seems to be warmer winters and less growth in summer.
@@thursoberwick1948 but a single key species can have a huge impact on the environment, just look at what happened when they brought wolves back to yellowstone national park. They changed the ecosystem so much that the rivers changed course.
@@bigvoiceguy Yes, heard all that before. It doesn't really apply to mammoth. They appear to have been creatures of the Ice Age, whereas wolves have proven themselves to be much more versatile. Another problem with most of these species is their sheer size. If they had become the size of large pigs, or medium sized deer, they would work better in modern environments. Instesd they're the size of a truck.
It's like the Russian fable about the fox and the hedgehog. The hedgehog has one big idea, whereas the fox has many little ones. Mammoth are like giant hedgehogs in that sense - spikes sticking out of them - whereas wolves are more like the fox, and much more adaptable and mobile
Here’s to hoping scientist can one day bring this beautiful creature back to life via cloning
Thanks for the video, but I want to see Mammoths reintroduced.
It would be cool to see Steppe Mammoths brought back from extinction.
Yes. I don't see why people imagine it's a dichotomy between research on bringing back mammoths versus protecting endangered present day elephants. It's two totally different types of research/effort taking place in totally different parts of the world. They aren't mutually exclusive
@@michaelwarenycia7588 I 100% agree with your take.
Columbian Mammoth is probably my favorite animal because of its gigantic size and appearance. I like to see a figure of one in the future
I’ve heard part of the deextinction plan involved having them live in the tundra and taiga to help bring those ecosystems closer to some of their original state
Except the climate has changed radically since then and not all from human activity.
@@thursoberwick1948 the biggest reason i hear for bringing bakc large herbavors to the tundra is actually to help maintain permafrost, as large mammals trampling down snow allows the cold to pierce the ground deeper and ether slwoing down or reversing the melting of the permafrost, this has already worked in Pleistocene park in Russia where the big grazers out there trample down snow and are allowing the permafrost to reform even without any mamoths there like their hoping ot bring in one day
@@wolfofdiscord7092 That wouldn't really work. If you press ice hard, it causes it to melt at temperatures around freezing. With permafrost, we're also talking about ice penetrating the ground to depths of 20 ft or even a few metres. Not convinced by that explanation at all... if it was the case then heavy trucks would fulfil a similar function.
@@thursoberwick1948 was talking about snow not ice bro, snow acts as an insulator when uncompressed, also im pretty sure its been studied and the usually expected loss of permafrost is sloweing or stopping in areas in and around the park so the reintroduction of herbivores inot the tundra is a good thing, especically since humas are the ones that killed them off in that range long ago as the animals brough in to the park are ether ones that used to live up there or close relatives to species we made extinct
@@wolfofdiscord7092 Trampled snow is ice. Especially when it has a tonne of mammoth on top of it.
Phenomenal video as always doc! Mammoths are such an interesting example as to how megafauna rise, speciate, and adapt to the environmental factors around them, they not only asapted to their environments, but made their environments adapt to them aswell! Looking back on it in retrospect, mammoths somewhat mimic our own path in prehistory!!
I never really thought of it that way,I just thought our ancestors killed them with spears for meat
I very much agree that we should forget about bringing mammoths back and concentrate on the animals that currently exist. We already use other life on this planet as if it belonged to us, lets not bring another creature into being for our own amusements.
I think bringing back thylacines is a better idea.
It's not just "for our own amusement" - it's also an effort at re-creating the mammoth steppe in those locations where the climactic conditions for it are still possible.
@@stormisuedonym4599 It's also a rich person's, or urbanites', vision for the countryside... as a giant safari park and biology experiment, not a place where people live, work and are also native too.
@@thursoberwick1948 I don't know of too many people who live in national parks.
@@stormisuedonym4599 Some of the world's elite want to move everyone into cities, and create wilderness by, ahem, let's call it "demographic cleansing". There is a Danish oligarch who made his money off the Tetrapak fortune, and wants to remove all people from the far north of Scotland - a sore topic given the Highland Clearances - and replace them with bears, wolves and beavers. Like many such people, he is a misanthrope and alienated from ordinary folk.
Here’s to hoping they clone this species back into world someday soon
I can't decide if resurrecting them is a good idea or not (if it's even possible), but I can't deny that I would absolutely love to see one.
Regarding the ethics of mammoth cloning:
Yeah, we should focus on living animals, but this really doesn't have to stop one from bringing back mammoths (or anything else we fucked over). Put bluntly, we can do both, and there's nothing that can stop that, provided the resources are made available (i.e., what you present is a false dilemma). This is especially as the mammoth can be hybridized with Asian elephants first, and these initially introduced, and cloning the mammoth might end up helping the remaining elephants. How?
Well,. I think a little context is needed to understand whence the above premise (that cloning might help). This will, I hope, explain WHY there's a push to clone mammoths (at least in certain circles). So let's dive in!
Some Mad scientist (in a good way) in Russia and his son have managed to obtain land set aside for an experiment, aimed to preserve permafrost. The thinking is that removal of at least part of the Taiga cover, and its replacement with Mammoth steppe (reconstructed), will reduce albedo and decrease heat sinking by trees (two separate phenomena, both caused by tree cover), and so maintain the permafrost.
But a key component necessary to maintain the environment--the mammoth steppe--are the mammoths themselves: their job is literally to clear-cut the taiga (which the fellow blames on the extinction of the mammoths, not climate change per se). This keeps it from expanding back into the proposed steppe setting.
As mad-cap as it all is, it appears the preliminary results are excellent. But it's very demanding to maintain (the guy currently has to use a bulldozer or three)--hence the need for an animal that can do it for us in a long term, sustainable manner, free of charge. Mammoths are just such animals. The idea is that the short term cost in cloning these fuckers, will be offset by the long-term saving of the global environment (and the inevitable economic damage), since it turns out we have more carbon in the permafrost than we do from our fossil fuel (just let that sink in). Carbon that is now starting to escape, as the permafrost melts.
I don't know about you, but if that guy is right--and from what I've read, he might well be--then we'd be saving the other three or four species of elephants simply by combating the worst of climate change, by somewhat resurrecting the steppe.
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I agree with this. I appreciate the doc's concern, but I don't see bringing back such recently extinct mammals (or rather bringing forth near analoges) as a huge problem, as long as it is not being done by the Chinese (because god knows what THEY would do with them......)
@@davidrichard3582 Yeah. I believe that cloned mammoths and other recently extinct animals would not pose any real huge problems. Although we should save the current species, I believe that cloning recently extinct animals would also be beneficial to our modern ecosystems. De-extinction and conservation are not mutually exclusive.
That's why I unsubscribed Dr. Polaris, because he is against combating climate change (and that would lead to an even worse mass extinction and further harm the civilization), and mammoth resurrection (or at least their cloned descendants) would either solve or lessen the effects of man-made global warming.
I've always found the "We shouldn't resurrect the mammoth, we should focus on surviving elephants" argument to be a bit... shallow. Resources for one are not necessarily resources for another, unless there's an elephant cloning program I'm unaware of. Breeding mammoths from elephant mothers wouldn't hurt the elephant population, either, as the problem isn't elephants being unable to breed - it's elephants being killed off faster than they can breed.
@@stormisuedonym4599
The only potential overlap is the need for Asian elephant cows (which are the mammoths' closest living relatives). These can be sourced from zoos. Every other fetus can be a mammoth (the other, naturally, an Asian elephant). A cow can be expected to have 4-5 babies; so we can--hypothtically--arrange that 2 can be "mammoths," and 2-3 be her own species.
If anything, this is an incentive to improve the ability of Asian elephants to reproduce in captivity, thereby providing a stock of them for potential future re-release (a similar proposal has met with some success with tigers, beavers, and the Californian condor). Recent advances in making this happen for Asian elephants have been achieved, so this proposal is perfectly realistic; just improve on what we got.
@@Albukhshi Exactly! And it's not like the inability to reproduce is why elephants are going extinct. It's poaching and habitat loss that's doing them in.
Before I forget, congrats on your 120th video.
The reason mammoths should be brought back.
Permafrost in the Arctic would stop melting, once more compacted ground was produced by mammoth packs.
That's not accurate at all.
The planet in general, and the Northern latitudes of the planet, began warming 25,000 to 20,000 years ago. This was the ending of the last ice age. There were still large populations of mammoth species on the planet. Mammoths being present in the Northern latitudes and Arctic regions of the planet, had no effect on the warming that was taking place on the planet. And it's laughable to think they could somehow prevent it.
The rapidly warming Earth was the death sentence for many specialized species in the Northern hemisphere. The Mammoth Steppe, which was home to various species of large mammals, once covered over a third of the planet's surface. Due to the ending of the last ice age, and the steady warming of the planet, that biome is virtually nonexistent on the planet today. And had dwindled to virtually nothing thousands of years ago.
Proboscideans have been one of my favorite animal groups since I was a kid, thanks a lot for this video, you make the group justice
since you're doing the ground sloths next, please include thalassocnus the aquatic sloth.
Just one of the many animals to ad in the documentary that I hope gets made in the future.
Mammoths are amazing animals. Especially columbian and steppe mammoth due to their size and look.
I CAN'T BELIEVE I MISSED THE MAMMOTH EPISODE!
You know I just finished an Environmental Ethics paper about the de-extinction of the Woolly Mammoth.
Excellent work again, Dr!
I've been researching mammoths for a few weeks now, for a project I'm working on - and your relatively short video has provided a number of insights that the network-made documentaries never seem to touch upon. Thanks, in particular, for the brief coverage of their overall habitat. All too often, when showing these impressive creatures, the background upon which they lived gets missed - or is depicted incorrectly. As always, your well-researched and succinct presentation is appreciated!
Excellent video
Let’s respect the creatures who roam the planet 🌎 with us.
Let’s also respect their lives.❤
great vid. Thanks.
I love your videos man. I get excited every time you upload. Keep it up
Lots of information! Thank you!
Thank you very much. Mammoths are very interesting.
Friendly reminder that we are still in the ice age.
More Pleistocene! You're doing the lord's work friend.
Edit: if you did something on the European jaguar you might win the award for my favorite guy.
Your videos are really good, it would be great if you consistently stuck to metric units.
this has been very informative, thank you very much🦣🦣🦣🦣🦣
This video was really good and I love it alot
Also I wish you a good day
Good shit, thanks for sharing boss-man
Excellent presentation of an interesting topic, as usual.
Good video
Great video.
It is allways feels weird to think of mammoths just as another group elephants. Instead of some million years old sister liniage like Mastodonts.
Nice work as always doc.
Have you done/do you plan to do any vids on bear-dogs and/or short-face bears?
I would love to hear your take.
Thanks!
One of the most unforgettable extinct animals.
i love mammoths, the bulls themselves have well prominent tusks
Amazing
your channel and north02 are one of my fav, you guys should collab
What a mammothus-tic video
The Columbian mammoths are my favorite
Do you think you could make a video about elephants sometime? That'd be interesting!
Hey Dr. Polaris, have you thought of doing a cryptid profile on the Beast of Bray Road and attempting to debunk the creature?
to five.
You forgot the American lion since it lived in open habitat as well
Another excellent, well presented and well researched video.
I first knew of the Mediterranean island dwarf elephants from the natural/human documentary series: The First Eden. Back then they said they were the genus Elephas. Good to see that time and improved techniques show them to be Mamuthus.
It said that Malta had 3 species: 2m, 1.5m and 1m high. Is this the still the case?
If so, I'd like to order 20 1m high Maltese Pachyderms! If unavailable, the Cretan ones will suffice.
Well, the dwarf elephants from the other islands are indeed no mammoths, only the ones mentioned in the video were mammoths. The maltese and greek aegaeic ones were descendants of the european straight tusked elephants and dependant on the classification of this species previously Elephas and now Palaoloxodon.
Here is a comment for the algorithm and then I will let it run. I have one of those instincts of divine origan telling me to give your channel the support.
can you do a video about After Man
What are you doing, steppe mammoth
Maybe I haven't seen a video, but what is the differences between mammoth and mastodon?
every time i hear step-mammoth i cant help but think about stepbro jokes…
The Inteo music sounds like Mambo No.5
ah yeah the Doctor is in
lets go a new video
Aaaaand there's the obligatory 'we might be able to bring them back, but sHoUlD we?'
Animals used to be bigger & diverse back then than their relatives today. Sad.
I love the ice age 😍
its less about making them attractions (while yes thats one of the most logical things you could do to drum up money for the project) and more about using them for tundra management and by extension permafrost regulation. They would be very important ecological tools to help repair and fix some problems we are seeing in these biomes, though i feel there are easier ways to actually do this as well. But i at least understand why they want to breed them, though personally i'd rather just breed something similar to mammoths rather than recreate them. Something small, domestic, and easy to manage that we can use.
Here's your algorithm offering 😁
Indeed mammoths are related to true elephants
Funny the la brea tar pits have a movie by exactly that name
Mammuthus Lamarmorai would've probably been fuckin adorable
Imagine a big bull in musth.
Which Mammoth?
If M. creticus could be revived from extinction, there would be a huge market for it as a pet.
Russian oligarchs! Also probably Bezos and Musk.
@@thursoberwick1948 No, I mean a huge market. That's assuming (as one must) that these are not being cloned one at a time, but that the founders of herds are cloned, then they reproduce naturally. M. creticus was not MUCH bigger than a large dog and definitely smaller than a pony. From the cuteness factor and the likely intelligence, there would be hundreds of thousands of potential customers in the US alone. (It's obviously not a pet for apartment dwellers.)
I just want to try to board a plane with a mammoth as an emotional support animal.
@@christosvoskresye Depends whether they are easy to domesticate.
@@thursoberwick1948 They won't be fully domesticated, at least unless a substantial bit of Indian elephant DNA is used, which is plausible, but they would probably be easily tamed, which is a different concept. They would be herd animals bigger than a sheep but smaller than a cow, and herd / pack animals are generally easier to tame (or to start the domestication process) because they already have social instincts that can be co-opted.
@@christosvoskresye African elephants can't be domesticated, but Asian ones can be. No idea why that is, maybe someone on here knows. Maybe m. Cricetus or woolly mammoth could be easier to domesticate than an African elephant. Or not.
PS nice presentation on the pachyderm’s but way too much speculation without evidence to review.
We need to hurry up and bring them back so I can herd them after WW3. I want to be a mammoth rider in the apocalypse. It will be totally sweet, hurry up and get clonning already!
it's good to be inchular
I vote for selecting Asian elephants with mammoth like traits to create a pseudo mammoth. Genetic information and comparison can help with the selection process and breeding program.
Dr. Polaris, have you done a video on the Masterson's ? As for cloning I think it's a bad idea, think about it. It's like a person who's been in a coma for a very long time and suddenly waking up now and very confused and with going on without help can cause mass hysteria.
That's a fallacious comparison; cloning a mammoth would get us a newborn baby mammoth
"Leave them in a state of extinction"
Read: Iowa
17:31 That is a very ignorant statement. Both projects do not compete for resources; to stop the cloning efforts will not magically help to preserve the elephants of today.
22:55.
Is there still a debate about whether mammoths had fur or not.
Some had, others didnt.
I mammoth
And so is my car.
Isn't the title should be Palaeoloxodon?
We can't bring back extinct animals AND preserve living animals simultaneously because...?
14:30 ...wild horses AND BISON
I love your videos :)
eh if people want to fund it let them
The Mammoths, paleoloxodons and the modern elephants are the true elephants The other like American mastodons stegodons and deinotherium We’re not true elephants
Stegodontids were the sister group to elephants.
We're not true elephants?
You forgot the gomphotheres which were not elephants either.
Gompotheries Sorry for my spelling or not true elephants they are primitive
Or clone them and release them in Canada and Alaska.
Why life always have to start in Africa?
Maybe we can Genetically enhance the Asian elephant with mammoth DNA and introduce it to new places...
Still highly unethical, but might be interesting...
There is little ethical about modern DNA research etc. We've seen millions of people exposed to it in recent months via mRNA jags, while labelling it something else.
Bro, why the fuck is the Jurassic world Pteranodon in your banner? It's literally the worst depiction of the animal in the present.
This video was very decent to learn about the mammoths I mean I do love learning about prehistoric 🦣
Asian Elephants are cladistically Mammoths, so reviving the "Mammoth" shouldn't be that controversial honestly