Meeting the Mammoths

In our last week in London, we went to the special Mammoth Exhibit that was on at the Natural History Museum.  We took a trip back in time...

This is a picture of me and my brother standing in front of big Mammoth tusks.  Mammoths were so big that even just their tusks were taller than me and Isaac.

MAMMOTH MYTHS

• Some people think that Mammoths are the ancestors of Elephants but they're not.  In Africa about 6 million years ago a branch of the Elephantidae Family split into 3 groups.  One branch developed over millions of years into the African Elephant.  One branch became Asian Elephants and one branch was Mammoths.  So, even though they come from the same family, elephants are not descended from Mammoths.

• Because of movies like Ice Age everybody thinks that Mammoths only lived in icy climates.  The reason why everybody thinks that is that instead of the bodies of Mammoths rotting, in icy places permafrost frozes lots of the bodies and kept them well-preserved.  So lots of the remains that we find are in icy places and they don't find much in un-icy places seeing as there is no permafrost so the bodies have just rotted away.  So the truth is that Mammoths also lived in warmer climates.

MAMMOTH HISTORY

These are some of the earliest Proboscidieans:

Moeritherium

Moeritherium looked a little like a cross between a giant rat and a very fat hippo.  It didn't have a trunk - just a large snout.  It didn't have tusks either, but two humongous teeth that were the start of tusks.  They lived like hippos and they liked to play around in the water.

Deinotherium

Deinotherium had a short trunk and two curving tusks.

Ambelodon

Ambelodon had 4 tusks.  This proboscidean had two curved upper tusks and two lower tusks which were flat like a shovel.  They are called 'Shovel Tuskers'.

Gomphotherium

Gomphotherium was about the same size as an elephant.  It had two pairs of tusks.  The top layer of tusks curved downwards whilst the bottom layer could be a metre or more long.

HANDS ON WITH MAMMOTHS

We got to learn more about Mammoths by feeling, touching and doing things that the Mammoths would have to feel, touch and do.

 



First we got to try to pick up objects using big metal mammoth trunks.  It was really hard to do it!

Next we got to turn a little handle round and watch as the Mammoth's skull bone and trunk went up and down.  It was showing you that the ligament at the back of the Mammoth's head had moved as the Mammoth developed because as the tusks got heavier the ligament couldn't hold it well.

Then we were able to see all the different layers of hair that the Mammoth had.  Some were tough and hard and some were soft and warm.  The outside layers were tough and hard to protect from the weather.  The inside layers were softer and warm.

We got to touch some ox fur which is what scientists think is the closest thing to real Mammoth hair.

We got to lift a hay bale to see how heavy it was.  Mammoths would eat up to 230kg of vegetation a day - that's about 15 of these bales.

We got to touch a bronze replica of a baby Mammoth's skull.

Pooey!!!  After that me and Izzy got to touch lots of different kinds of animal poop... well, not real animal poop, but pretty gross replicas.  After eating all that food Mammoths had pretty big poos!

We also got to fight with pretend little Mammoths with big tusks.  It was pretty fun!

LYUBA THE BABY MAMMOTH

This is a picture of the most complete Mammoth remains that's ever been found.  It even had eyelashes.  We couldn't take a photo at the Exhibition, but I found this one on the internet.  Her name is Lyuba.  She was named after the wife of the fisherman who found the remains.

From studying her body the scientists could tell all sorts of things about her.  For example, by looking at what was in her stomach they found out at that she ate lots of things like milk from her Mum, grasses, and even Mammoth dung.  They think mother mammoths gave dung to their babies to give them bacteria they needed for their digestive system to work property.  From her tusks and teeth they could tell how old she was and how long she had stayed in her mother's stomach.  They could even work out how she had died.

Isaac and I found this part really sad and I don't even really like writing about it.

BEHAVIOUR OF MAMMOTHS

We also watched a video about what scientists who studied Mammoths thought their behaviour was like.

They thought Mammoths were like Elephants in three ways...

1. They thought that male Mammoths would fight like bull elephants.
2. They thought that the Female Mammoth led the herd like a female elephant does.
3. They thought that the adult Mammoths would always protect the young ones if they sensed danger like Elephants do by making a circle around them. 

I loved learning about Mammoths!