Mammoth news stories on Newser

Mini-Mammoth Discovered on Crete

Mary Papenfuss — Thu, 10 May 2012 02:31:00 CDT

A "mini-mammoth" the size of a baby elephant has been identified on the island of Crete. Mammuthus creticus is the tiniest mammoth ever found, and is another example of "dwarfism" on islands, where scare resources can keep animals small, notes the Telegraph . Fossilized teeth of the three-foot-tall mammoth were first...

Climate Change, Not Humans, Killed Mammoths

Rob Quinn — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 09:46:01 CDT

British scientists believe climate change did more than spear-wielding humans to wipe out the woolly mammoth in Europe, the Guardian reports. New tests have revealed that the mammoths roamed northern Europe until 14,000 years ago, much later than had been thought. Researchers believe the animals died out as the...

Baby Mammoth Gives Up Secrets

Mary Papenfuss — Sun, 03 May 2009 08:50:38 CDT

A nearly perfectly preserved 37,000-year-old baby mammoth is giving up tantalizing secrets about her species, scientists report. The creature, dubbed Lyuba by researchers, still sports clumps of hair and eyelashes, according to the Telegraph . Scientists have been able to examine stomach contents and the mineral makeup of the bones...

LA Unearths Mammoth Fossil Stash

Rob Quinn — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 08:24:26 CST

Workers digging up an underground Los Angeles parking garage have unearthed the biggest cache of fossils from the last Ice Age ever discovered, including a nearly intact mammoth skeleton, reports the Los Angeles Times . Researchers have lifted huge chunks of earth from the site adjacent to the La Brea tar...

Comet Might Not Have Killed Mammoths After All: Study

Nick McMaster — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 15:35:01 CST

New evidence undermines the theory that the impact from a comet killed off the woolly mammoth and enough humans to end the prehistoric Clovis culture, the BBC reports. Supporters of the impact theory point to a planet-wide rash of wildfires, but while a new analysis of sediment under North American...

Tusk of Rare Pygmy Mammoth Found on Calif. Island

Peter Fearon — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 06:19:01 CST

A tusk that may belong to a rare pygmy mammoth, a dwarf version of the giant elephant-like mammal that roamed the Earth thousands of years ago, has been found on Santa Cruz Island off California, reports the Los Angeles Times . The 4-foot-long tusk, more than 10,000 years old, was...