Mammoth News

[Zuma]

This is new to me. I saw a blurb in the Science Mag about St Paul Island
mammoths and googled it.
I am of the opinion that people hunted most mega fauna to extinction.
And that Paleo folks did not use boats. This new info helps reinforce
those beliefs for me
I have been aware of dwarfed mammoths being found on one of the
Channel Islands off the coast of CA and Wrangle Island off of the
Siberian coast. They existed until about 3.500 years ago.
Or most likely until they were discovered by people.
These mammoths on St Paul Island were full grown and lasted until
 5,600 years ago.
There is no evidence that they ever encountered humans. But they did
go extinct due to the lack of fresh water, according to the experts.   
Zuma


St. Paul Island mammoths most accurately dated ...
news.psu.edu/story/419291/2016/08/01/research/st-paul-island...

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- While the Minoan culture on Crete was just beginning, woolly mammoths were disappearing from St. Paul Island, Alaska

[willie]

could not make that link work, but did find other interesting reading. Could the climate changes that enabled the migrations of man, also be instrumental in the changes in mega fauna populations?

https:/    /www.newscientist.com/article/dn27952-megafauna-extinction-dna-evidence-pins-blame-on-climate-change/

[bjrogg]

Very interesting Zuma, I think it is interesting to note that man is not the only animal to make dramatic changes in his environment. I believe many herd animals, and even flock birds could have this same problem if they ran out of room to move on and let nature repair what they altered. Hopefully we can do it in a sustainable way. The days of clearing new land useing it till it doesn't produce anything and then moving on are long gone. I believe we have to use and take care of what we have in a sustainable, productive way that protects our soil from erosion and lose of organic mater.
Bjrogg

[Zuma]

Hey willie, how are you doing?
Yeah I didn't even try to let the link work. (recent warnings).
You could cut and paste the link I posted.
To your question----Sure, The ice melted back allowing man to access
an entire hemisphere of creatures that did not evolve with mankind.
The question to be answered is ---
"Why and how could the island mammoths survive climate change?"
Also, if climate change could be the culprit-- Why did all the other
smaller creatures survive?

BJ, I agree with you but I have this notion that the earth can support X amount of biomass.
It's a matter of survival of the fittest. To bad there is such a thing as greed. Creatures have it too.
Zuma

[bjrogg]

I agree completely Zuma, I didn't try link I just googled St. Paul mammoths and it popped right up.
Bjrogg

[willie]

Hi Zuma

"Why and how could the island mammoths survive climate change?"

They didn't, isn't that what the article was about? My take away was that reduced range from rising oceans, coupled with reduced freshwater resources, (from rising temps?), did them in.

But presuming that you mean "how could they survive as long as they did", the simple explanation "the absence of mankind" can only hold water, if the mammoths other predators were present on the island, without tipping the balance.

[bjrogg]

Interesting, possibly in this case if prehistoric man or some other predators had limited their population to a level that the shrinking island could sustained they might not have done the damage to the island that caused their extinction on it.
Bjrogg