Summary
Apart from formerly glaciated areas, woolly mammoth remains are abundant in
the surficial sediments of the mid and high latitudes of the Northern
Hemisphere, including western Europe, northern and eastern Asia,
Alaska and the Yukon.
There are probably millions of mammoths buried in the permafrost of Siberia
alone. The mammoths are found with a wide variety of other mammals, large and
small, many of which were grazers. They lived in a grassland environment with a
long growing season, mild winters, very little permafrost, and a wide diversity
of plants—quite different from the climate in the region today.
The mammoths and other animals colonised the region after the Flood during
the ice age. The region’s climate during the ice age was ideal for rapid
population growth and, in the 600 or so years before their demise, the
population had grown to many millions of animals. They were buried in the dust
storms that deposited the loess blankets found in those regions today. Some
were entombed in a standing position. The good state of preservation of the
stomach contents does not call for super-rapid freezing of the carcasses.
Rather than food digestion, the mammoth stomach acts as a food storage pouch.
The mammoths became extinct when, at the end of the ice age, the climate in the
region became more continental, with colder winters, warmer summers, and drier
conditions.
Frozen carcasses and many thousands of tons of bones and tusks of woolly
mammoths are buried in Siberia and Alaska.
In March 2000, the Discovery Channel produced a special on the excavation of a
carcass in north central Siberia, called the Jarkov
mammoth. This mammoth was cut out of the permafrost and transported by
helicopter into cold storage for future analysis and possible cloning.
1
Mammoth remains have puzzled scientists and laymen for hundreds of years.
Many explanations have been offered. One of the most popular hypotheses is that
one eventful day, the hairy elephants were peacefully grazing on grass and
buttercups when suddenly, tragedy struck, and millions of them froze instantly.
This article examines the life and death of the woolly mammoth in Siberia,
Alaska, and the Yukon Territory of Canada.
These areas, together with the surrounding shallow ocean (Bering
Strait), are called Beringia. There are still unknowns associated
with the woolly mammoth and its environment in Beringia. Some information is
conflicting. However, the data is pointing to a unique environment and
extinction of the woolly mammoths in Beringia.
