Woolly-Mammoth Gene Study Changes Extinction Theory

Physorg ^ | 6-10-2008 | Penn State

[blam]

GGG Ping.

[woollyone]

Absolutley amazing that these fellas remained after 47000 years!

My freezer goes out of power for like one day and all the meat is ruined.

Those Siberian freezers must be sumthin else!

I mean even if I leave a steak in there for oh...say, 6 months, it’s ruined.

47000 years?
just dam!

[Bernard Marx]

Hi blam,

Like we’ve been saying... Take that, Jared Diamond and other PC “researchers!”

[E. Pluribus Unum]

"This discovery is particularly interesting because it rules out human hunting as a contributing factor, leaving climate change and disease as the most probable causes of extinction."

If global climate changed and humans were not the cause, then that means that climate change is normal and animal extinctions are normal.

[Brilliant]

“This discovery is particularly interesting because it rules out human hunting as a contributing factor, leaving climate change and disease as the most probable causes of extinction.”

Of course, the humans had to be to blame for the climate change, so it was the humans who did them in anyway.

[bcsco]

"This discovery is particularly interesting because it rules out human hunting as a contributing factor, leaving climate change and disease as the most probable causes of extinction."

Those Woolly Mammoths couldn't by carbon offsets fast enough, I guess...

[2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten]

If global climate changed and humans were not the cause, then that means that climate change is normal and animal extinctions are normal.

Sssshhhhhh! You can't say that!

[bcsco]

Funny how three of us picked up on the same sentence. Anyway, not being caused by humans, it had to be because of the Mammoth methane gas releases. Yeah, that’s it :)

[Vinnie]

... because it rules out human hunting as a contributing factor

They didn't mention the other catch phrase,..

Habitat Destruction

[Nakota]

There you go, see what happens when you don’t value diversity!!!!

[YOUGOTIT]

There must have been a quick climate change as some that have been found frozen also have the food in their bellies that they had just eaten.

Questions that I have asked and received no answers:

1. In the frozen place that they were found, what was growing that they could eat?
2. If they froze so quickly that they were preserved along with their food how quick did the climate have to change for this to happen? (My freezer does not do that)

[AuntB]

“”This discovery is particularly interesting because it rules out human hunting as a contributing factor, leaving climate change and disease as the most probable causes of extinction.””

That’s a pretty sweet argument for hunting and from a scientist. I realize that’s not the conclusion he was probably going for. Since the Libs say we’re doomed because of global warming and disease is rampant, we might as well go hunt the critters before they all drop dead.

[evets]

My neighbor here in central Texas
found a 12 foot mammoth tusk in his yard.
I saw it. He sold it for $200.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

It is kind of a holy grail for many scientists to figure out a way to bring back the woolly mammoth. They not only have figured out the process, but a preserve has been set aside in Siberia in case it works.

I gather they intend to start with a mammoth-elephant hybrid, then over several generations, to replace the elephant DNA with mammoth DNA, eventually creating the closest thing to a pure mammoth.

http://www.luckyninja.com/flash/elephants.swf

[decimon]

My neighbor here in central Texas
found a 12 foot mammoth tusk in his yard.

Could be from an extinct Republican.

[El Sordo]

Innerestin’

[Deklane]

“There must have been a quick climate change as some that have been found frozen also have the food in their bellies that they had just eaten.
Questions that I have asked and received no answers:
1. In the frozen place that they were found, what was growing that they could eat?
2. If they froze so quickly that they were preserved along with their food how quick did the climate have to change for this to happen? (My freezer does not do that)”

To answer your questions as best I can...
1. Think permafrost, Soil on top of perpetually frozen ground. The mammoths’ territory was apparently relatively lush grasslands (now called the “mammoth steppe,” for which there is no exact counterpart today).
2. There’s a popular conception of mammoths being quick-frozen and perfectly preserved in a single sudden catastrophic event, but it was messier than that. There are very few intact and well-preserved specimens (the best are a couple of babies, more easily frozen due to their small size), and many are in various states of decomposition or eaten by carnivores or scavengers. Many frozen mammoths were probably buried by mudslides, which then froze around them, or fell through thin layers of ground over mudflows. Falling through thin river ice and drowning was another way to die and freeze. These were probably rare events at any one time, and relatively rare even over long periods, so there aren’t a whole lot of well-preserved specimens, but they occasionally did happen.

There are stories of Russians having feasts of mammoth meat, but these seem to be legends as reports are that they aren’y so well-preserved as all that.

[Publius6961]

Awwwwww.
What kind of science is this? It is unfeeling and probably homophobic.

If man didn't cause the first extinction, who are the doofus dingbats gonna blame for the poor critters' demise?

[douginthearmy]

The next thing these neo-con “scientists” will tell us is that humans didnt cause the Ice Age! Fascists! /s