Woolly Mammoth in the human era

Wrangell Island, Alaska had a population of mammoths until at least 2000 BC, based on scientific evidence.

Wrangell Island

Radiocarbon Dating Evidence for Mammoths

Given that the dating is based on fragments it is reasonable to suppose that this last known date can be pushed forward some more, and gives much support to the sightings of imperial mammoths etc. up to recent times. The creature hasn't died out "millions of years ago" but in historical times.

It also raises again the cause of some extinctions- anthropogenic causation. In other less long words, humans hunted the creatures to extinction and expanded into their ecology, disrupting it.

Wikipedia says, you are right.

Wikipedia on mammoth

But what is the news?

reply to post by DogHead


Early man was a contributing factor, not the sole cause. Though I don't think you were implying that...

A species weakened by climate change, the warming trend after the most recent Ice Age, followed by hunting by man equipped with technological breakthroughs such as Clovis points and spear throwing sticks. Poor fuzzy mega fauna stood little to no chance. Wrangle Islands isolation saved the population for a while...

So much early archaeology and especially in relation to creatures from the supposed Ice Age(s) seems like pants...

I always wonder how accurate the assumptions are- hairy means cold-adapted, dinosaurs had no feathers or fur, and so on.

I just wonder- are woolly mammoths a creature for cold climates or not. Their bones, in the tens of millions, have turned up as part of a general scene of death from some form of cataclysm- were they in fact just a furry animal spread worldwide?

Would love to know. Guess soon they'll be walking the earth again and we'll know.

I'm in Central Texas and somewhere in the mid to late 90's (1990s) my tiller hit a fossilized bone. My property is loaded with petrified wood (it's not palmwood though), some with amber so the silicates are right for fossilization at my place.

Anyway, I took the bone to the only science museum in my area and the curator said it was Mastedon or Wooly Mammoth. According to the mural on the wall, our region was home to both of those creatures in the past. He ventured the later "Wooly Mammoth" as the Paleo Indian relics in my area are roughly 5,000 B.C.

The curator was more interested in the "scrapings" on the bones which he said were apparent bone knife scrapings where "Paleo Indians" had removed the meat from the bone. I reminded him my tiller had hit it and perhaps it was tiller tine cuts and he insisted no, "Paleo Indians".

The museum didn't want my "piece" (as a free donation) as they had too much "Paleo Indian" exhibit material already, and better quality.

So, I got an opportunity to learn about Paleo Indians, who were the predecessors of the tribal Native Americans we read about in history.

I knew my land had a large rise in the center which was "soft" and Dad had speculated it might be an old army ant mound. Army ants make mounds which can "swallow a horse" according to Dad. I never checked that out though. But anyway, I read about Indian burial mounds and thought this same area was a good candidate for that as well. A Paleo Indian site! The land layout was ideal for that.

Texas Archeological Society didn't ever reply to several emails. It seems nobody wants to "dig"! That surprised me really.

I've also got fossilized clamshell looking fossil from my property. This was a seafloor prior to the Wooly Mammoth, Mastedon and Paleo Indian eras.

Fossils are cool though!

I also found a rusty colored, (metallic?) and with miniature crystals in a concave that resembles hail which I named my "fallen star". I gave it to my Dad though.

So, yes, humans and Wooly Mammoths DID live at the same time! Paleo Indians hunted them in my area.

Originally posted by Trexter Ziam

That sounds really cool, thanks for sharing that with us

That would be one of the most awesome things ever to have such a historical/pre-historical area within your property. You can keep it just to yourself, and make sure no pesky lopers and archaeological robbers come into contact with it. Not to mention that it is YOUR claim no matter what, so all credit Must go towards you.

Are you still interested in contacting a serious Archaeological Museum in regards to what you have found? If so, send me a U2U. I think I might be able to help you on that account.

reply to post by Trexter Ziam


You in the Waco area? If so PM me I am there as well and have other good places to dabble in.



[edit on 09/19/2005 by swampcricket]

[edit on 09/19/2005 by swampcricket]

Yes, I'm about an hour and a half or two hours from Waco.

I don't want any money off of it ... I would like to see the area examined by an anthropologist and if they find anything they want for their museum then great!

I don't give out personal information on the Internet; but, if you know of an interested anthropologist; then, please post a link to his or her website so I can contact them myself.

I'll check back here in a few weeks to see if there's a reply and thank you both!

I thought I would share this very interesting insight with the people of the ATS community.
It is from glp.
Here it is:

People have found many frozen wooly mammoths in N.Siberia and the following are points of interest in regard to these frozen mammoths.

1. Studies have indicated that these animals did not originate as Arctic animals, and they would not survive under Arctic conditions.

2. They had parts of their last meal between their teeth and on their tongues, which apparently they did not seem to have time to swallow.

3. The cells of his body are preserved for thousands of years due to his being frozen.

4. He died without any sign of violence.

5. No one seems to know how these mammoths were quick frozen.

6. To preserve him properly, he has to be quick frozen.

7. It had to be a very tremendous cold in a very short period of time, or otherwise the center of the mammother could have remained warm enough to allow decomposition to start.

8. Mammoth steaks were taken to London and eaten by the Royal Society.

9. These frozen mammoths have always been found on plains a little above sea level but never in mountains.

10. They found buttercups in their mouths and buttercups will not grow even at 40 degrees Fahrenheit and they will not bloom without long daily periods of sunlight.

11. They were found to have been frozen 10,000 years ago by the radio carbon dating method.

12. Scientists beleive that at sometime in the past, either the poles were not where they are located today, or this area of the earth's surface that lie about the poles now were someplace else at one time.

Here is the answer to the frozen mammoth riddle, "He was eating buttercups in the warm tropics and then all of a sudden the earth flipped."