Tusker, Our Woolly Mammoth!
Distribution of Woolly Mammoth Populations,
DagdaMor / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)
Meet Tusker, the woolly mammoth! Woolly mammoths (Mammuthus primigenius) roamed the Earth beginning 2.6 million years ago! However, the last of their kind went extinct on the mainland between 10,400 and 7,600 years ago. Still, they persisted on Wrangel Island, off the coast of northern Russia, until 4,300 years ago when they officially went extinct due to inbreeding, the loss of genetic diversity, climate change, disease, and human hunting. They once roamed Northern Eurasia and North America. Our best information about the species comes from Siberia, where they have been permanently frozen in the ice, which unbelievably preserves them! Scientists can see remnants of their last meals, internal anatomic structures, and even pull DNA! They existed in cold, dry grasslands, known as the mammoth steppe. To account for the cold, they adapted with thick shaggy coats of fur with small ears and tails to minimize heat loss and frostbite along with a mound of fat on the hump on their back to keep them warm.
MONAH's woolly mammoth skeleton, Tusker, came out of Siberia and is actually a composite skeleton, meaning he's made up of more than one mammoth! He is constructed from 3 different mammoths and a few artificial toes. However, the main skeletal body is from one mammoth known to be quite large for his kind and roamed Siberia 12,000 years ago! Typically, they are about the size of a modern elephant. Tusker works at the museum as our door greeter and has been there for 8 years now, making sure to greet our guests as they walk in!
Humans and woolly mammoths co-existed together. However, early humans hunted, trapped, and scavenged mammoths for their resources. Humans used the ivory tusks and bones for art, tools, and dwellings, and evidence in frozen carcasses suggests some were butchered, leaving little of the animal to waste. One of the most important human interactions with mammoths is the image left behind in art! Early humans painted or engraved images of woolly mammoths in caves; more than 500 pictures have been found to date! Paleolithic cave paintings are located in France and Spain. They realistically show herds of the animals lost to time and show what is unseen by skeletons alone, such as the lump of fat on their backs! While the paleontological evidence is not the same in North America as it's found in Siberia, Hot Springs, South Dakota holds the largest concentration of mammoth remains in the world! The Mammoth Site, as it's known, is an active dig site with over 58 Columbian mammoths and 3 woolly mammoths being unearthed since it's discovery. The high concentration is due to a sinkhole surrounded by red shale, which became greasy and trapped animals who entered the area.
Tiny Tusker has already traveled parts of the world from Siberia to Northwest Arkansas. Still, he would also like to tag along to any traveling you may do! Be sure to visit our website to download Tusker and his passport to journey alongside you!
Blog by Jazlyn Sanderson
References:
Britannica. "Mammoth." Accessed September 8, 2020. https://www.britannica.com/animal/mammoth-extinct-mammal.
Illinois State Museum. "The Late Pleistocene Extinctions." Accessed September 8, 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20070930222251/http://www.museum.state.il.us/exhibits/larson/lp_extinction.html.
Wikipedia. "Woolly mammoth." Last Modified September 1, 2020. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woolly_mammoth.