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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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1
posted on
11/20/2009 8:15:30 PM PST
by
SunkenCiv
It's one of those "anything but accept the reality of large scale catastrophe and its role in mass extinction" papers. :')
- What killed the mammoths and other behemoths?
- Ancient Atomic Warfare - Religious texts and geological evidence
- Supernova debris found on Earth
- Deep freeze dealt death knell to bison (Ice Age)
- Supernova Storm Wiped Out Mammoths?
- Supernova Storm Wiped Out Mammoths?
- Scientist: Comets Blasted Early Americans
- Terrestrial Evidence of a Nuclear Catastrophe in Paleoindian Times
- Did comet start deadly cold snap?
- Diamonds tell tale of comet that killed off the cavemen
- Catastrophic Comet Chilled and Killed Ice Age Beasts (and Clovis people)
- Oregon Researchers Involved In New Clovis-Age Impact Theory (More)
- Comet May Have Doomed Mammoths
- Ice Age Ends Smashingly: Did A Comet Blow Up Over Eastern Canada? (More) (Carolina Bays)
- Climate alarmists lose another piece of evidence
- Comet Theory Collides With Clovis Research, May Explain Disappearance of Ancient People
- NSF Press Release: Comet May Have Exploded Over North America 13,000 Years Ago
- Research Team Says Extraterrestrial Impact To Blame For Ice Age Extinctions (More)
- Cosmic blast may have killed off megafauna: Scientists say early humans doomed, too
- Cosmic blast may have killed off megafauna: Scientists say early humans doomed, too
- Evidence for an extraterrestrial impact 12,900 years ago
- Site Provides Evidence For Ancient Comet Explosion (Topper - SC)
- The End of Eden: The Comet That Changed Civilization
- Great beasts peppered from space
- Did Comets Cause Ancient American Extinctions?
- Al Goodyear And The Secrets Of Ancient Americans
- The mysterious forest rings of northern Ontario
- Life Survived Catastrophic Space Rock Impact [Chesapeake Bay area]
- Research Casts New Light On History Of North America
- Exploding Asteroid Theory Strengthened By New Evidence Located In Ohio, Indiana
- First Humans To Settle Americas Came From Europe, Not From Asia....
- Diamonds Rained Down During Ice Age
- Diamonds Rained Down During Ice Age ($$$)
- First Humans To Settle Americas Came From Europe, Not From Asia Over Bering Strait -
- Tracking down abrupt climate changes (Rapid natural climate change 12,700 years ago)
- Mammoth Mystery: The Beasts' Final Years
- Scientists find signs of 13,000-year-old extinction event
- Scientists say comet killed off mammoths, saber-toothed tigers
- Diamonds Linked to Quick Cooling Eons Ago
- Six North American sites hold 12,900-year-old nanodiamond-rich soil
- Did a Comet Hit Earth 12,000 Years Ago?
- Mammoths wiped out by 'perfect storm?'
- Laser mapping may help solve the mystery of the Mima Mounds
- Humans to Blame for Extinction? - Not Necessarily So ...
- Did a Comet Cause a North American Die-Off around 13,000 Years Ago?
- Carolina bays gouged into the ground at a magnetic reversal
- North America comet theory questioned
- Mini ice age took hold of Europe in months
- Car-Sized Creature Whacked with Tail's Sweet Spot (until 10,000 years ago)
- Starvation 'wiped out' giant deer
- Prehistoric man, giant animal coexisted
- Extinction of Giant Mammals Changed Landscape Dramatically
- Sophisticated hunters not to blame for driving mammoths to extinction
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)
To: 75thOVI; aimhigh; Alice in Wonderland; AndrewC; aragorn; aristotleman; Avoiding_Sulla; BBell; ...
Another "shaggy mammoth" story.
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)
To: StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; 1ofmanyfree; 21twelve; 24Karet; 2ndDivisionVet; 31R1O; ...
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)
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
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)
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.
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)
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)
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)
To: SunkenCiv
11
posted on
11/21/2009 4:59:13 AM PST
by
JoeProBono
(A closed mouth gathers no feet)
To: SIDENET
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)
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)
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)
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.)
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)
To: JoeProBono
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)
To: SunkenCiv
Sorry
18
posted on
11/21/2009 1:04:29 PM PST
by
JoeProBono
(A closed mouth gathers no feet)
To: JoeProBono
19
posted on
11/21/2009 1:20:52 PM PST
by
JoeProBono
(A closed mouth gathers no feet)
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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