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Sophisticated hunters not to blame for driving mammoths to extinction
Guardian ^ | Thursday, November 19, 2009 | Ian Sample

Posted on 11/20/2009 8:15:28 PM PST by SunkenCiv

The animals, which included mammoths, elephant-sized mastodons and beavers the size of black bears, were probably picked off by more inept hunters who only much later developed specialised weapons when their prize catches became scarce. "Some people thought humans arrived and decimated the populations of these animals in a few hundred years, but what we've found is not consistent with that rapid 'blitzkrieg' overkill of large animals," said Jacquelyn Gill, a PhD student at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, who led the research team... Gill's team rules this out by putting a more accurate date on the decline and fall of woolly mammoths and more than 30 other large mammals that dominated the landscape as the ice sheets retreated from North America. Among them were giant sloths the size of SUVs. To date the animals' slide to extinction, the scientists examined sediment cores from a lake in Indiana. The deepest sediments were laid down in the distant past, while more recent sediments were nearer the surface. Specifically, the scientists measured levels of a fungus that is known to thrive in the excrement of giant herbivorous mammals and nowhere else. They reasoned that more fungal spores meant more dung, which in turn reflected a larger population of roaming mammals. The sediments also held ancient pollen and charcoal dust, which gave the team clues about the predominant plant life and frequency of wildfires. Writing the US journal Science, the researchers describe how the amount of mammal dung started to fall around 14,800 years ago, long before advanced spearheads became commonplace. The animals had been almost completely wiped out a thousand years later.

(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Astronomy; History; Science; Travel
KEYWORDS: astronomy; catastrophism; clovisimpact; godsgravesglyphs; science
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The Cycle of Cosmic Catastrophes: Flood, Fire, and Famine in the History of Civilization The Cycle of Cosmic Catastrophes:
Flood, Fire, and Famine
in the History of Civilization

by Richard Firestone,
Allen West, and
Simon Warwick-Smith


1 posted on 11/20/2009 8:15:30 PM PST by SunkenCiv
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It's one of those "anything but accept the reality of large scale catastrophe and its role in mass extinction" papers. :')
2 posted on 11/20/2009 8:17:21 PM PST by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/__Since Jan 3, 2004__Profile updated Monday, January 12, 2009)
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To: 75thOVI; aimhigh; Alice in Wonderland; AndrewC; aragorn; aristotleman; Avoiding_Sulla; BBell; ...
Another "shaggy mammoth" story.
 
Catastrophism
 
· join · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post new topic · subscribe ·
 

3 posted on 11/20/2009 8:17:59 PM PST by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/__Since Jan 3, 2004__Profile updated Monday, January 12, 2009)
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To: StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; 1ofmanyfree; 21twelve; 24Karet; 2ndDivisionVet; 31R1O; ...

· join list or digest · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post a topic · subscribe ·

 
Gods
Graves
Glyphs
Mammoth told me there'd be days like these.

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.
GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach
 

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4 posted on 11/20/2009 8:19:38 PM PST by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/__Since Jan 3, 2004__Profile updated Monday, January 12, 2009)
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To: SunkenCiv
I thought that they found a whole layer of nanodiamonds and no skeletons of mammoths appeared above that layer. And that the ones that did appear in that layer showed signs of pitted tusks from debris.

That's what the history channel said, at least.
5 posted on 11/20/2009 8:31:16 PM PST by mysterio
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To: SunkenCiv

This is silly. Everyone knows that George W. Bush personally went back in time and savagely killed all of the mammoths personally.


6 posted on 11/20/2009 8:32:38 PM PST by pnh102 (Regarding liberalism, always attribute to malice what you think can be explained by stupidity. - Me)
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To: mysterio
The thing that interests me about extinctions is how they might actually be caused by a combination of events. Populations will survive environmental catastrophe several times only to disappear because the thin edge of survival gets tipped somehow. Sometimes what seems insignificant gets over looked in theories. For example lets say one little hunter has a rare talent for hunting mammoths, a rock slide blocks a critical mountain pass, or a virus hits at the same time as another environmental stress. How often are things happening even today clear cut and not influenced by multiple factors.
7 posted on 11/20/2009 8:51:40 PM PST by dog breath
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To: SunkenCiv

It was the south Texas BBQ crowd that did it.


8 posted on 11/20/2009 9:28:29 PM PST by SouthTexas (God Bless our Fort Hood Troops)
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To: SunkenCiv
beavers the size of black bears

Now, THAT'S some beaver!

9 posted on 11/20/2009 10:02:41 PM PST by SIDENET ("If that's your best, your best won't do." -Dee Snider)
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To: SIDENET

no- actually it was global warming that did them in.


10 posted on 11/20/2009 10:51:44 PM PST by bunkerhill7 (God bless)
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To: SunkenCiv

11 posted on 11/21/2009 4:59:13 AM PST by JoeProBono (A closed mouth gathers no feet)
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To: SIDENET

Dam right.


12 posted on 11/21/2009 5:37:17 AM PST by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/__Since Jan 3, 2004__Profile updated Monday, January 12, 2009)
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To: pnh102; SouthTexas

;’)


13 posted on 11/21/2009 5:38:13 AM PST by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/__Since Jan 3, 2004__Profile updated Monday, January 12, 2009)
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To: mysterio

:’) Mammoths croaked off, here and there, throughout their time on the Earth, just like every other creature. What this “study” says is that the group involved is applying the local climate around a lake in Indiana to the entire continent (among other assumptions). As you said, there aren’t any mammoth kills in North America antedating the black mat, and there aren’t any Clovis artifacts that antedate it, either. Whatever and whoever made the Clovis artifacts were wiped out (or nearly so) by the same event.


14 posted on 11/21/2009 5:41:01 AM PST by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/__Since Jan 3, 2004__Profile updated Monday, January 12, 2009)
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To: SunkenCiv
"were probably picked off by more inept hunters"

That's depressing...not only to be slaughtered, but to be exterminated by the inept.

15 posted on 11/21/2009 10:47:52 AM PST by americanophile (Sarcasm: satirical wit depending for its effect on bitter, caustic, and often ironic language.)
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To: americanophile

...oh, sorry, I had a “My Cousin Vinny” flashback... ;’)


16 posted on 11/21/2009 12:59:13 PM PST by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/__Since Jan 3, 2004__Profile updated Monday, January 12, 2009)
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To: JoeProBono

What, no monolith?


17 posted on 11/21/2009 12:59:52 PM PST by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/__Since Jan 3, 2004__Profile updated Monday, January 12, 2009)
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To: SunkenCiv
Sorry


18 posted on 11/21/2009 1:04:29 PM PST by JoeProBono (A closed mouth gathers no feet)
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To: JoeProBono

19 posted on 11/21/2009 1:20:52 PM PST by JoeProBono (A closed mouth gathers no feet)
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To: SunkenCiv
I was the second spear thrower on the ancient grassy knoll...


Frowning takes 68 muscles.
Smiling takes 6.
Pulling this trigger takes 2.
I'm lazy.

20 posted on 11/21/2009 1:56:25 PM PST by The Comedian (Evil can only succeed if good men don't point at it and laugh.)
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