THE LAST STAND OF THE WOOLY MAMMOTH

Wooly mammoths (Mammuthus primgenius) lived about 300,00 years ago until their extinction about 4,000 years ago. This animal was mostly late Pleistocene in age and was widespread throughout the Arctic tundra-vegetation zone, in both the New World and Old World. Wooly mammoths migrated via Beringia 3 from Europe to North America during the last Ice Age. [note: see one of my earlier posts a few years ago on the evolution of elephants and related forms]

Figure 1. A plastic model of Mammathus primigenius, which was a mammoth species that lived in Europe, Asia, and North America. It is likely that the wooly mammoth evolved from M. primigenius.

During most of their history, mammoths lived on mainland northern continents (Europe, Asia, and northern North America). DNA studies show that they were closely related to the Columbian Mammoth [see my previous blog post on the geologic history of mammoths].  

Figure 2. Location of Wrangel Island, Russia.

When wooly mammoths were near extinction, there remained only a small population of them on Wrangel Island, 87 miles (140 km) north of mainland Russia, in the northern Pacific area. Wooly mammoths and humans never lived together on this island [i.e., last of the Wrangel Island mammoths was 4,000 years ago. The first substantiated human occupation was about 1800 B.C.], but it is likely that early arctic-area indigenous people visited the island from time to time. By the time Europeans discovered Wrangell Island, however, it no longer had any human presence.

Wrangel Island (approximately located at 71 degrees north and 179 degrees west) (Figure 2) is about the same size as Yellowstone National Park or of the state of Delaware. Wrangel Island stretches about 78 miles, from west to east. The northern part is tundra, but the south central and southern areas are mountainous (e.g., Mammoth Mountains and Central Mountains—the latter with the highest peak (1096 m =3600 feet) on the island). Wrangel Island, which has a severe polar climate, is subject to cyclonic episodes of high northerly winds. It also has short summers.

Figure 3. Google-Earth image showing the details of Wrangel Island in the Arctic Ocean, north of Russia.

The rocks in the central and adjacent southern parts of Wrangel Island have the most complex history and make up the “Upper Paleozoic Wrangel Complex,” consisting of greater than 2,000 m of volcanic, slate/phyllite, quartzite, some small granite intrusions, and 700 m of Upper Silurian and Lower Devonian clastic rocks and carbonates. These beds are overlain by some Lower Carboniferous rocks and Permian slates and limestones, which are overlain by thin Tertiary and Quaternary clastics. The edges of the island have a relatively uncomplicated geologic history (Kosko et al. 1992).

The island is now a Russian Protected Sanctuary and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, accessible only by tourist-cruise ships. A permit is required in order to get onto the island, and a few rangers live there. No one else is allowed to live there. It is foggy and frosty most of the time. It rarely gets above 42 degrees Fahrenheit, and can get as low as -72 degrees F.  Only a few rangers live on the island. The wildlife includes mostly polar bears [the highest density of polar bears in the world!], bearded seals, Pacific walruses, musk oxen, arctic foxes, Siberian lemmings, Arctic foxes, wolverines, wolves, snow geese, snowy owls, gulls and many shorebirds (e.g., horned puffins, cormorants, and long-tailed ducks). In places, in the tundra and beach cliffs, wooly mammoth tusks and other fossil remains weather out of the Pleistocene-age deposits. 

What happened to the Wrangel wooly mammoths is not known. There has been plently of speculation: low genetic diversity, disease, eruption of an Arctic volcano, overhunted by the Neanderthals, or couldn’t adapt to warm weather?

A compilation of the geologic history of wooly mammoths (via Wikipedia) from youngest to oldest time:

1800 years ago, first human settlement on Wrangal Island.

4,500 to 4,000 years ago, wooly mammoths went extinct.

10,000 years ago, wooly mammoths died out from Eurasia and North America but some wooly mammoths became isolated on Wrangel Island as the rising sea level cut their access to the mainland. These isolated wooly mammoths, however, continued to survive on Wrangel Island for another 6,000 years.

11,700 years ago = end of last ice age.

29,000 to 19,000 years ago = last glacial maximum.

REFERENCES

Kos’ko, M.K. and 6 others. 1993. Geology of Wrangel Island…Excerpts from Geological Survey of Canada Bulletin 461 (available online for free).

“Russian refuge. Wrangel Island is a haven for wildlife, frozen in space and time.” National Geographic, May 2013, pp. 51-70.