We are about to embark on an unprecedented journey to meet a legendary animal. The magic of science allows us to travel back in time. Buckle up, we are going to take a look at our dear planet Earth as it was over 40,000 years ago.
40,000 Years Ago, a Very Different Planet
Welcome to the Pleistocene, a period in our planet’s history very different from what we know today! At first glance, nothing seems strange: the sky is blue, the Sun is shining, and silence prevails. But is it really silent? The wind blows, birds sing, the rustling of bushes surrounds us: the thick cacophony of nature envelops us. This unique sound landscape no longer exists today. This is the Earth before the birth of the first civilizations. Not a single car on the horizon! No planes, trains, or cell phone ringtones! And it’s cold. The air is dry. At the time we are in, our planet is going through what is known as an ice age.
All over the globe, the temperature has dropped so much that ice has spread beyond the poles, nibbling away at the northern parts of the continents. The landscape is a bright white, interspersed here and there with brown and green patches. You might wonder, “What fantastic animals might we encounter? Could we suddenly come face to face with… a tyrannosaurus?” Rest assured, tyrannosaurs, diplodocuses, and other titanic reptiles disappeared millions of years ago, quite a long time ago! However, other mythical animals are still alive. Giant sloths, saber-toothed tigers, and cave bears make up what is called the mégafaunamégafauna of the Pleistocene. “Mega” because of their impressive size!
The Last Moments of Neanderthal
But there is another animal that you know well and that also lived on Earth 40,000 years ago. Look closely over there, near a cliff. They live in small groups, human groups… Yes, at that time, humans, whom we call prehistoric men and women, already resembled us a lot. In fact, just like us, they are Homo sapiensHomo sapiens. They make tools, communicate, organize themselves, and even paint magnificent frescoes on the cave walls that you may have had the chance to admire. But they are not alone. At that time, other members of the human family still exist: the men and women of NeanderthalNeanderthal.
You may have noticed that they are a bit different from us; they are smaller, stockier, with broader faces, receding foreheads, and non-existent chins. But like their Homo sapiens cousins, they live in groups, paint, make tools, and even hunt by developing complex strategies. Soon, they will disappear, but for now, they survive the challenges of the Ice Age and its biting cold. The Earth 40,000 years ago is full of surprises. And the most beautiful is yet to come. Among all these extraordinary animals, there is one that continues to fascinate children and scientists millennia after its existence: the legendary mammoth.
The Woolly Mammoth, Built to Survive the Ice Age
A few meters away, it moves slowly, with its massive build. It looks like a hairy elephant. In fact, it is the same size as the present-day elephant. It is often mistakenly believed to be its ancestor. The woolly mammoth, MammuthusMammuthus primigenius, a true symbol of the last Ice Age, belongs to the elephantid family, the last two representatives of which are the Asian and African elephants. However, it is their cousin, not their “grandfather”. There are a few differences between a mammoth and an elephant. Firstly, unlike the elephant – which understands human languages, as we discussed in a previous episode of Beast of Science – the mammoth has small ears and a short tail, which helps it retain its heatheat More practical when the average temperature is about… 6 degrees!
And to combat the cold, the mammoth has more than one trick up its sleeve. Its long hair, of course, protects it. It even has two layers that make up a thick fur and form an effective barrier against the cold. Beneath its skin, a thick layer of fat also insulates it from the temperatures of the Ice Age. It even has a hump at the back of its head, a bit like the dromedarydromedary, which allows it to store fat and therefore, toAnimal legends written thanks to DNA
Energy. Let’s focus now on its defenses. They are huge! Unlike the elephant, whose tusks are short and straight, the mammoth’s tusks measure an average of two meters (that’s larger than an adult human!) and each weigh nearly 80 kilos! A small particularity: they are curved. But they are also made of ivory! A material already used by humans millennia ago to make sculptures and various objects.
The herd is approaching us. It is made up of females and their young, who are cute as can be! The young ones use their trunks to bump heads and play-fight, it seems like… they’re playing! Like elephants, mammoths are social animals that live in groups consisting of females, matriarchs, and their young, while males are more solitary. They walk peacefully in a completely open landscape. This may seem strange to you. In fact, at that time, forests as we know them today had not yet emerged. Instead, there was ground-level vegetation made of grass and moss, called… mammoth steppe! Yes, these mammoths love flowers, grass, and moss, which they eat in large quantities! The group is now moving away, probably in search of food. Soon, like the women and men of Neanderthal, mammoths will become extinct, leaving the mark of their majestic journey on Earth in human minds. But how do we know so much about a species that is now extinct? How do we have the ability to go back in time and know how mammoths lived, what they ate, or even what they looked like 40,000 years ago? As always, scientists have not lacked ingenuity in retracing the incredible destiny of the mammoth!
An animal whose legend is written thanks to DNA
Mammoths are mammals that lived on Earth for millions of years. The woolly mammoth we just observed, which lived in Europe, Asia, and America, is just one of the 160 mammoth species that existed. 160! It’s staggering when you think that today we only know of two species of elephants… Some of them were even… very small! Yes, they were dwarf mammoths! If we have a precise knowledge of the anatomy and lifestyle of this prehistoric animal, it’s because the humans who interacted with them painted their silhouette on cave walls at a certain level.Incredible discoveries have been made about mammoths, as many of them have been preserved, trapped in ice, for thousands of years. A few years ago, a child discovered a 30,000-year-old mammoth in northern Russia. Thanks to their preservation, mammoth remains provide insights into their diet. Some frozen mammoths still had their last meal preserved in their stomachs for millennia. The ice also preserves a crucial element for scientists: DNA. DNA is like a biological code unique to each living being, influencing traits like eye color, hair color, and skin color based on genes. The preservation of mammoth DNA in ice has allowed researchers to decode their genetic information and learn about their lives.
One probable reason for the mammoths’ extinction is the disappearance of their habitat. Studying mammoth tusks, which grow in rings as the mammoth ages, provides valuable information about their lives. By counting the growth rings in tusks, similar to counting tree rings to determine a tree’s age, scientists have been able to reconstruct the life of a woolly mammoth that died 17,000 years ago.From its tusks. Each day lived by the mammoth during the 28 years of its life resulted in the formation of a growth ring. In this way, scientists were able to access its logbook and learn about its age, diet, and adventures. They realized that the mammoth was a great traveler! It covered very long distances, and it is still unknown whether it migrated or if other factors drove it to undertake these journeys.
The mammoth became extinct thousands of years ago. The exact causes of its disappearance are still debated among scientists. What is certain is that 15,000 years ago, the climate, which was so cold during the last ice age, gradually warmed. The mammoth steppe, which provided food for the mammoth, was replaced by forests. Its natural habitat disappeared. Its hunting by humans may have also dealt the final blow to this species already weakened by the loss of its habitat. The story of mammoths teaches us that appearing indestructible does not make one invulnerable. It reminds us of the importance of protecting the natural habitats of species living on Earth today, such as the last relatives of the mammoth, the Asian elephant, and the African elephant, which are also endangered. The mammoth’s story serves as a warning: preservation is essential if we want to continue observing and studying the animals that inhabit our planet. Because, for now, only the magic of Bêtes de Sciences allows us to travel back in time.
So, the mammoth was not so foolish after all!