The woolly mammoth
The Star of the Ice Age
In the Pleistocene, which began just under 2 million years ago, lived the most famous animal of the past besides the dinosaurs: mammoths. During the last great ice age, about 20 000 years ago, mammoths were widespread in Europe, Asia, North America, and even South America.
Their bodies were perfectly adapted to the extremely low temperatures. A dense fur and an insulating layer of fat kept them from freezing to death. Short legs and small ears prevented too much heat from being dissipated through the body. Both female and male mammoths had powerful tusks. It is assumed that the tusks were not only used by the males in mating fights but also - by females and males - as a kind of snow plough.
The first mammoth bones were discovered more than 500 years ago. But according to the superstitious humans of the time, they did not know how to classify them. In 1443, during excavation work for the foundations of the north tower of St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna, a gigantic thigh bone was unearthed that was thought to be the mortal remains of a giant. The bone, which today lies in the Geological Institute of the University of Vienna, was hung above the entrance to the cathedral, and, according to legend, the gate was christened Giant's Gate. It was not until the end of the 18th century that the mammoth bones, which had meanwhile been found in large numbers, were identified as animal fossils.
Today, we know more about the mammoth than any other extinct animal, because the permafrost soils of Siberia have provided us with perfectly preserved mammoth carcasses. These frozen time capsules are a direct insight into the animal world of the last Ice Age.
Fur colour, organs, food - almost everything has been preserved. Even the DNA of the mammoths could be analysed. Today, it is assumed that the mammoths' way of life was very similar to that of the African elephants: While females and calves lived in groups under the leadership of a leading cow, adult bulls were solitary animals.
We, humans, and Homo Neanderthalensis were the natural enemies of the mammoth. To this day, it is disputed how the mammoth became extinct. One theory is that humans hunted the mammoth to extinction.
The other, more likely one, says that the mammoth was unable to adapt to the warmer climate due to overspecialization at the end of the Ice Age. Presumably, both factors, humans, and climate change, were responsible for the extinction of the mammoth.
Today, only two species remain: the African and Asian elephants. Nevertheless, the elephants still have two very interesting relatives: the manatee and the cliff sheep (a rat-like mammal). Both split off from the elephants about 40 million years ago.
