Mammoth

Mammuthus primigenius, (Blumenbach in 1799)

Here we have the skeleton of a woolly mammoth. Are all these bones real? Not all of them are real. In addition, a number of them had to be restored. How can you see which bones or which parts of the bones are not real? By the colour, you can determine whether the parts are real or not. The lighter parts are a cast.

How many bones are there in this skeleton, in your opinion? I think it should have more than 200 bones. All those bones come from the North Sea. Fishers have caught most of them. As you can understand, a fisher never catches a complete skeleton. Our collection of mammoth bones is huge. Out of thousands and thousands of bones, you have to pick 200 bones that match to get a credible whole. That is a hell of a job. The bones used for this skeleton come from at least 130 sites. At least 130 mammoths have contributed to this skeleton.

What are these holes in the forehead?

The Woolly Mammoth had a mixed herbivorous diet, consisting primarily of grass mixed with flowers, shrubs and parts of trees. How do we know this? The diet of the species is known directly from the stomach contents of frozen mammoths. In addition, from them we know that they had a considerable fur.

How can you tell from the molars that they are herbivores? This is deduced from the ridges on the chewing surface. How did they move their lower jaws?

Did they move the mandible from side to side or front to back?