Mammoths in New York

[uniface]

Very long and very detailed/researched.

Much more information than you ever wanted to know.

https://malagabay.wordpress.com/2019/08/01/alaskan-muck-the-mastodons-of-new-york/

It hence appears that the animal ate his last meal from the tender mosses and boughs of flowering plants growing on the banks of the streams and margins of the swamps, rather than fed on submerged plants; and it is probable, moreover, that the pines and cedars, and their allies, formed no part of the mastodon’s diet.

Here we see that everything indicates a climate similar to that of New York today.


An interesting point is the difference between the mastodon’s diet indicated here and that indicated in the case mentioned earlier.


Speculation suggests that perhaps the diet in this second case indicates the animal’s preferred diet, or perhaps merely the diet available in the summer, while that in the earlier case, in which twigs were so important, may represent either the winter diet of the mastodon or an emergency diet, the result of the destruction of the normal diet by the events occurring just before the animal’s death.


In any case, the second diet indicates that whatever happened to that mastodon certainly took place in the summer.


Now it is obvious that the arguments used to explain away the evidence of climatic change in Siberia won’t work in New York.


Here there was certainly climatic change, with a vengeance.

 

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[Fred250]

Interesting, I fought through reading most all the article, and am still wondering what hypothesis they are supporting. With Hapgood mentioned so often I guess polar shift, but unless I missed it doesn’t seem to be stated clearly. All that work to not voice an opinion? Again, maybe I missed it.

 

[uniface]

Now it is obvious that the arguments used to explain away the evidence of climatic change in Siberia won’t work in New York.

. . .

 

[Fred250]

Yeah, I saw that but don’t get it, can you explain a little further. I haven’t gone very far down this rabbit hole.

 

[joshuaream]

Interesting read, lots of good local reference material. A bit light on modern research.

In any case, the second diet indicates that whatever happened to that mastodon certainly took place in the summer.

​

Now it is obvious that the arguments used to explain away the evidence of climatic change in Siberia won’t work in New York.

Here there was certainly climatic change, with a vengeance.​

I get that they are saying that affects of climate change wouldn't be the same between New York and Siberia, but I think that's kind of a given a couple of simple facts. First, Mastodons are a "New World" animal, they haven't been found in Siberia that I know of... Mammoths yes, Mastodons no. Second, they ranged from the polar north to very tropical Central America & Florida, it's probably likely that there was a lot of regional variation (hairy, not hairy, lean, etc.) The tropics might have been drier back then, but they probably weren't ever that cold.

Mammoths are a different beast, with teeth made for chewing very different food. The family tree between them branches back tens of millions of years.

Going back to the Climate Change comments. I think it's a given than some Pleistocene megafauna probably hung around in pockets for thousands of years. Wrangle Island and Catalina both had populations well after the last Ice Age ended. Haplomastodons hung around in parts of South America into what we would consider the Archaic period as well. I think of the ice age extinction as the beginning of the end for much of the megafauna, be it from Humans (direct hunting, fires impacting grasslands, stress/harassment that impacted breeding, etc.) and from climate change (often drier weather, a switch in plants, etc.)

 

[Wildcat1750]

Either way you look at it, it is mind boggling to image there were once such creatures roaming New York...

 

[Tdog]

Either way you look at it, it is mind boggling to image there were once such creatures roaming New York...

There's creatures roaming around New York right now that's just as bad with teeth not too much better.

 

[kingskid1611]

New Amsterdam and I was wondering where is the buffalo chips they dropped....

 

[quito]

We had mammoth right here in our small town in s.e. South Dakota.
My friend ran the local concrete plant where they mined their own sand.
He got into an area where he brought up a couple tusk, some buffalo horns and some mammoth teeth.
This is a tooth he gave me a few years ago.

for size perspective this is above our fireplace and the agate slab in the corner is 10 inches across

recently he asked if I wanted a buffalo horn. Said he had five of them, he works out of town but I will see it soon.

 

[Wildcat1750]

There's creatures roaming around New York right now that's just as bad with teeth not too much better.

 

[Charl]

Uni's story was focused on mastodons. Here's the story of how the very last of the Woolly Mammoths met their end...

https://gizmodo.com/how-the-last-woolly-mammoths-met-their-demise-on-a-remo-1838848130

 

[quito]

Uni's story was focused on mastodons. Here's the story of how the very last of the Woolly Mammoths met their end...

..........I noticed that Charl. I wondered why the thread was titled the way it was.

 

[uniface]

Sorry for messing that up, Gents.

Getting older can be a real adventure sometimes.