Woolly
Mammoths
with Mrs.
Vaage's Class from 1999
As I was
going through my dinosaur files to help support the development of this
web site, I came across this great material from 3 years ago. The class
that I had then was not as interested in dinosaurs as in the prehistoric
creatures that followed the dinosaurs - especially the Woolly Mammoth.
We built a huge model based on information we received from scientists
from the University of Calgary. We emailed them when we saw that they
had discovered woolly mammoth fossilized footprints near Carstairs,
Alberta. Following is the email that we received from them along with a
field photo that they sent us.
Hello Carol,
Len Hills passed your message on to me as I'm one of the people working on
the mammoth tracks. Your model sounds exciting, I certainly don't remember
doing anything quite that exiting in kindergarten. When you complete it I
know that both Dr. Hills and I would like to see a photo.
As for the information you asked for, I can give you the details of our
find and some general information on mammoths. You can then e-mail me back
if it is what you are looking for and would like more of the same or
something different (references, etc..).
We have 4 mammoth trackways (series of consecutive prints) consisting of
four prints or more (one of four, two of five, one of eight and one of
nine). The best preserved (See attached image "Len with Mammoth
tracks) consists of 9 tracks with an average diameter of 45 to 50cm. Only
the rear leg tracks are clearly visible as the front print tracks are
mostly covered when the hind foot is placed in the same place,
overstepping the previous
track (see attached images where the blue line represents the limit of
sediment deformation (mud pushed up by the foot), the green line the
overstepped front foot track, ant the red the outline of the rear foot
print, with the "T"'s representing the four toes). As the woolly
mammoth (scientific name _Mammuthus primigenius_) is roughly the same size
as the modern African elephant (_Loxodonta africana_) we can use them for
comparison to estimate the size of the animal. A foot diameter of 45-50cm
indicates either a fully grown female or a sub-adult male. It would have
been approximately 2.5m at the shoulder and weighed in at 3 to 3.5 tonnes.
The shoulder height is about the same as the stride length (distance
between two successive prints made by the same foot), indicating the
animal was traveling at a slow walk. Based on the toes (mammoths have four
toes expressed on the outside of the foot, but five skeletal toes) we can
tell the mammoth was walking up a gradual slope away from the river
channel, probably after getting a long drink. The largest tracks we have
are on the order of 65 to 70cm across and indicate a large bull (male)
standing well over 3m (3.2-3.4m?) and weighing in excess of 6 tonnes!
Just some general facts about mammoths:
- Originally evolved in Africa and spread into North America during the
Pleistocene (Ice ages). The first ones (not the woolly mammoth, but _Mammuthus
meridionalis_ (the southern mammoth) arrived about 1.7 million years ago
across land bridges from Asia (the Bering Strait). The woolly mammoth
arrived, also from Asia, relatively late, only 30 000 years ago.
- Woolly mammoths, while approximately the same size as African elephants
are most closely related to the Indian elephant (_Elephas maximus_).
-The woolly mammoth was the last mammoth in Alberta and went extinct about
11 000 years ago. It was adapted to cold weather environments with its
long woolly hair.
- The largest mammoth was the Colombian or Imperial mammoth (_Mammuthus
columbi_) that did exit in Alberta at one time (approx. 18 000 years bp.)
with a height of over 4m at the shoulder.
I hope this is enough to get you started, and feel free to e-mail me with
any further questions or requests.
Sincerely,
Paul McNeil and Len Hills.
========================================================
Paul E. McNeil
Department of Geology and Geophysics
University of Calgary
Fax: (403) 284-0074
2500 University Drive N.W.
Phone: (403) 220-6596
Calgary, AB, Canada T2N 1N4
E-mail: mcneil@geo.ucalgary.ca
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