Mammoths and Mastodons - Ancient Extinct Elephants

Mammoths and Mastodons - Ancient Extinct Elephants Mammoths and mastodons are two different species of extinct proboscidean (herbivorous land mammals), both of which were hunted by humans during the Pleistocene, and both of which share a common end. Both of the  megafauna- which means their bodies were larger than 100 pounds (45 kilograms)- died out at the end of the Ice Age, about 10,000 years ago, as part of the great megafaunal extinction. Fast Facts: Mammoths and Mastodons Mammoths are members of the Elephantidae family, including the woolly mammoth and the Columbian mammoth.  Mastodons are members of the Mammutidae family, restricted to North America and only distantly related to mammoths.  Mammoths thrived in grasslands; mastodons were forest dwellers.Both were hunted by their predators, human beings, and they both died out at the end of the Ice Age, part of the megafaunal extinction. Mammoths and mastodons were hunted by people, and numerous archaeological sites have been found around the world where the animals were killed and/or butchered. Mammoths and mastodons were exploited for meat, hide, bones, and sinew for food and other purposes, including bone and ivory tools, clothing, and house construction. Mammoths The woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius), or tundra mammoth. Science Picture Co / Getty Images Mammoths (Mammuthus primigenius or wooly mammoth) were a species of ancient extinct elephant, members of the Elephantidae family, which today includes modern elephants (Elephas and Loxodonta). Modern elephants are long-lived, with a complicated social structure; they use tools and demonstrate a wide range of complex learning skills and behavior. At this point, we still dont know whether the wooly mammoth (or its close relative the Columbian mammoth) shared those characteristics. Mammoth adults were about 10 feet (3 meters) tall at the shoulder, with long tusks and a coat of long reddish or yellowish hair- which is why youll sometimes see them described as wooly (or woolly) mammoths. Their remains are found throughout the northern hemisphere, becoming widespread in northeast Asia from 400,000 years ago. They reached Europe by the late Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 7 or beginning of MIS 6 (200,000–160,000 years ago), and northern North America during the Late Pleistocene. When they arrived in North America, their cousin Mammuthus  columbi (the Columbian mammoth) was dominant, and both are found together at some sites. Wooly mammoth remains are found within an area of some 33 million square kilometers, living everywhere except where there was inland glacier ice, high mountain chains, deserts and semi-deserts, year-round open water, continental shelf regions, or the replacement of tundra-steppe by extended grasslands. Mastodons Mastodon model in the Museum of Natural History Science, Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal. Richard Cummins / Lonely Planet Images / Getty Images Mastodons (Mammut americanum), on the other hand, were also ancient, enormous elephants, but they belong to the family Mammutidae and are only distantly related to the wooly mammoth. Mastodons were slightly smaller than mammoths, between 6–10 ft (1.8–3 m) tall at the shoulder), had no hair, and were restricted to the North America continent. Mastodons are one of the most common species of fossil mammal found, particularly mastodon teeth, and the remains of this late Plio-Pleistocene proboscidean are found across North America. Mammut americanum was primarily a forest-dwelling browser during the late Cenozoic of North America, feasting primarily on woody elements and fruit. They occupied dense coniferous forests of spruce (Picea) and pine (Pinus), and stable isotope analysis has shown they had a focused feeding strategy equivalent to C3 browsers. Mastodons fed on woody vegetation and kept to a different ecological niche than its contemporaries, the Columbian mammoth found in the cool steppes and grasslands in the western half of the continent, and the gomphothere, a mixed feeder who resided in tropical and subtropical environments. Analysis of mastodon dung from the Page-Ladson site in Florida (12,000 bp) indicates that they also ate hazelnut, wild squash (seeds and the bitter rind), and Osage oranges. The possible role of mastodons in the domestication of squash is discussed elsewhere. Sources Fisher, Daniel C. Paleobiology of Pleistocene Proboscideans. Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences 46.1 (2018): 229–60. Print.Grayson, Donald K., and David J. Meltzer. Revisiting Paleoindian Exploitation of Extinct North American Mammals. Journal of Archaeological Science 56 (2015): 177–93. Print.Haynes, C. Vance, Todd A. Surovell, and Gregory W. L. Hodgins. The U.P. Mammoth Site, Carbon County, Wyoming, USA: More Questions Than Answers. Geoarchaeology 28.2 (2013): 99–111. Print.Haynes, Gary, and Janis Klimowicz. A Preliminary Review of Bone and Teeth Abnormalities Seen in Recent Loxodonta and Extinct Mammuthus and Mammut, and Suggested Implications. Quaternary International 379 (2015): 135–46. Print.Henrikson, L. Suzann, et al. Folsom Mammoth Hunters? The Terminal Pleistocene Assemblage from Owl Cave (10bv30), Wasden Site, Idaho. American Antiquity 82.3 (2017): 574–92. Print.Kahlke, Ralf-Dietrich. The Maximum Geographic Extension of Late Pl eistocene Mammuthus Primigenius (Proboscidea, Mammalia) and Its Limiting Factors. Quaternary International 379 (2015): 147–54. Print. Kharlamova, Anastasia, et al. Preserved Brain of the Woolly Mammoth (Mammuthus Primigenius (Blumenbach 1799)) from the Yakutian Permafrost. Quaternary International 406, Part B (2016): 86–93. Print.Plotnikov, V. V., et al. Overview and Preliminary Analysis of the New Finds of Woolly Mammoth (Mammuthus Primigenius Blumenbach, 1799) in the Yana-Indigirka Lowland, Yakutia, Russia. Quaternary International 406, Part B (2016): 70–85. Print.Roca, Alfred L., et al. Elephant Natural History: A Genomic Perspective. Annual Review of Animal Biosciences 3.1 (2015): 139–67. Print.

The Life of Astronomer Claudius Ptolemy

The Life of Astronomer Claudius Ptolemy The science of astronomy is one of humanitys oldest sciences. No one knows quite when the first people looked up and began to study the sky, but we do know that very early people began noting the sky thousands of years in the past. Written astronomical records were recorded in ancient times, often on tablets or walls or in artwork. That was when observers began charting what they saw in the sky. They didnt always understand what they observed, but realized that the skys objects move in periodic and predictable ways. Claudius Ptolemy with an armillary sphere he used to predict solstice dates and other celestial sights. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Claudius Ptolemy (often called Claudius Ptolemaeus, Ptolomaeus, Klaudios Ptolemaios, and simply Ptolemeus) was one of the earliest of these observers. He systematically charted the sky to help predict and explain the motions of the planets and stars. He was a scientist and philosopher who lived in Alexandria, Egypt nearly 2,000 years ago. Not only was he an astronomer, but he also studied geography and used what he learned to make detailed maps of the known world. We know very little of Ptolemys early life, including his birth and death dates. Historians have more information about his observations since they became the basis for later charts and theories. The first of his observations that can be dated exactly occurred on March 12, 127. His last recorded one was February 2, 141. Some experts think his life spanned the years 87 – 150. However long he lived, Ptolemy did much to advance science and appears to have been a very accomplished observer of the stars and planets.   We get a few clues about his background from his name: Claudius Ptolemy. Its a mixture of the Greek Egyptian Ptolemy and the Roman Claudius. Together, they indicate that his family was probably Greek and they had settled in Egypt (which was under Roman rule) for some time before his birth. Very little else is known about his origins.   Ptolemy, the Scientist Ptolemys work was quite advanced, considering that he didnt have the types of tools that astronomers rely on today. He lived in a time of naked eye observations; no telescopes existed to make his life easier. Among other topics. Ptolemy  wrote about the  Greek geocentric view  of the universe (which put Earth at the center of everything). That view seemed to quite nicely put humans at the center of things, as well, a notion that was hard to shake until Galileos time. Ptolemy also calculated the apparent motions of the known planets. He did this by synthesizing and extending the work of Hipparchus of Rhodes, an astronomer who came up with a system of epicycles and eccentric circles to explain why Earth was the center of the solar system. Epicycles are small circles whose centers move around the circumferences of larger ones.  He used at least 80 of these tiny circular orbits  to explain the motions of the Sun, the Moon, and the five planets known in his time. Ptolemy expanded this concept and made many fine calculations to fine-tune it.   This drawing by astronomer Jean Dominique Cassini was influenced by the epicycles that Ptolemy refined by his mathematics and observations of the sky. public domain This system came to be called the Ptolemaic System. It was the linchpin of the theories about objects motions in the sky for nearly a millennium and a half. It predicted the positions of the planets accurately enough for naked-eye observations, but it turned out to be wrong and too complicated. As with most other scientific ideas, simpler is better, and coming up with loopy circles wasnt a good answer to why planets orbit the way they do.   Ptolemy the Writer Ptolemy was also a prolific writer in the subjects and disciplined he studied. For astronomy, he described his system in his books that make up the  Almagest (also known as Mathematical Syntaxis). It was a 13-volume mathematical explanation of astronomy  containing information about the numerical and geometrical concepts behind the motions of the Moon and known planets. He also included a star catalog that contained 48 constellations (star patterns) he could observe, all with the same names that are still in use today. As a further example of some of his scholarship, he made regular observations of the sky at the time of the solstices and equinoxes, which allowed him to figure out the lengths of the seasons. From this information, he then went on to try and describe the motion of the Sun around our planet. Of course, he was wrong because the Sun does not orbit Earth. But, without more knowledge of the solar system, it would have been very difficult for him to know that. However, his systematic approach to charting and measuring sky events and objects was among the first scientific attempts to explain what happens in the sky. The Ptolemaic System was the accepted wisdom about the motions of the solar system bodies and the importance of Earth in that system for centuries. In 1543, the Polish scholar Nicolaus Copernicus proposed a heliocentric view which put the Sun at the center of the solar system. The heliocentric calculations he came up with for the movement of planets were further improved by Johannes Keplers laws of motion. Interestingly, some people doubt that Ptolemy truly believed his own system, rather he merely used it as a method of calculating positions. A page of Ptolemys Almagest translated and reproduced by Edward Ball Knobel. public domain   Ptolemy was also very important in the history of geography and cartography. He was well aware that Earth is a sphere and was the first cartographer to project the spherical shape of the planet onto a flat plane. His work, Geography  remained the principal work on the subject until the time of Columbus. It contained amazingly accurate information for the time and given the difficulties of mapping that all cartographers raced. But it did have some problems, including an overestimated size and extent of the Asian landmass. Some scholars think that the maps Ptolemy created may have been a deciding factor in Columbuss decision to sail west for the Indies and ultimately discover the continents of the western hemisphere. Fast Facts about Ptolemy Not much is known about Ptolemys early life. He was a Greek citizen living in Alexandria, Egypt.Ptolemy was a cartographer and geography, and also worked in mathematics.Ptolemy was also an avid skygazer. Sources Claudius Ptolemy, www2.stetson.edu/~efriedma/periodictable/html/Pm.html.â€Å"Claudius Ptolemy.†Ã‚  Ptolemy (about 85-about 165), www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Ptolemy.html.â€Å"Notable People.†Ã‚  Who Was Claudius Ptolemy, microcosmos.uchicago.edu/ptolemy/people.html.? Edited and updated by Carolyn Collins Petersen