Skeleton of Columbian mammoth (Mammuthus columbi) in the George C. Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles, California.

Credit: Wikimedia

Facts box

Scientific Name: Mammuthus columbi

First named: 1857

Height/weight: 4 m high/8-10 tonnes

The Columbian mammoth was quite a different beast to the commonly known woolly mammoth. It lived in temperate grasslands and was relatively hairless, and it's the most common species unearthed in the U.S. In 1838 and 1839, when the only known mammoth species was the woolly mammoth, Columbian mammoth fossils were found through excavations inthe Brunswick Canal in southeastern Georgia, U.S.. These fossils were recognised as a separate species by Scottish palaeontologist and geologist Hugh Falconer in 1857, naming the Columbian mammoth after the "great discoverer" Christopher Columbus in 1863.

The mammoth life

Living in a habitat of cool, temperate grasslands with scattered trees stretching from as north as Alaska and as far south as Costa Rica, the Columbian mammoth grew to a great size of 4 m high and 8 to 10 tonnes in weight. The males were also approximately 30% larger than the females, and the Columbian mammoth species were much larger than the woolly mammoths.

Woolly mammoths had tusks that were only slightly curved and ran more parallel to each other, compared to the 'spiralled' tusks of the Columbian mammoth that swept out into an arch from the skull, commonly crossing over at the tips. It is suggested that the difference in tusk structure is due to their living environments. While woolly mammoths foraged for food in snow and featureless grasslands, the Columbian mammoth often had to knock down trees and dig for ground water using their tusks.

"They wore bevels (edges) on the tips of their tucks in obtaining food, not only from grasslands, but also brush and trees. Many Columbian mammoths have at least one broken tusk," said Larry Agenbroad, director of the mammoth site at Hot Springs, South Dakota, where fossils representing the remains of 59 mammoths have been discovered. "I feel that heavy use was a big factor in Columbian tusks being less curved. All tusks have a 'built in' tendency to curve, use or lack of use allows different final shapes." The longest Columbian mammoth tusk was found in Texas and weighs in at about 94 kg and was almost 5 m long, it is currently at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

Columbian teenagers

The Columbian mammoth is believed to have died out 10,000 years ago. Research has suggested that they lived in matriarchal herds, with daughters of all ages and males up to the age of puberty (10 to12 years old) living under the oldest female. Once mature, the males were left to fend for themselves until they reached reproductive maturity (35 years). Of the 59 Columbian mammoths that have been excavated from the Hot Springs site, 87% were found to be young and sub-adult males.

"There is 20 to 25 years of no supervision and no protection [for the young mammoths]. So they wander as 'loners' or in small bachelor groups and get into really dumb places!" said Agenbroad.

"[This] suggests patterns we see somewhat in our own social makeup where the teenage males are risk takers and that the teenage females stay more or less with the family," said Jeff Saunders, curator of geology at the Illinois State Museum in the U.S, who has a particular interest in mammoths and palaeontology.

The Hot Springs site was exactly like it sounds: a hot tub, featuring green vegetation at the edge of the pond. The young mammoths had the choice to either sweep off almost a metre of heavy, wet snow for food, or enter the sinkhole for the lush green vegetation within. The 'teeny bopper' mammoths must have been enticed by the hot tub and the slippery slide into the spring. "They went for the salad bar! Once they were in the sinkhole, they could not climb out, and therefore were victims of a geologic-hydrologic natural trap, selective for the behaviour of the young, male mammoths," said Agenbroad. Saunders agrees, saying that the behaviour of the young mammoths might be the primary cause of the demise of so many mammoths in the one site.

Should we resurrect the woolly mammoth?

Research into cloning the woolly mammoth has raised many questions about whether we should resurrect the extinct mammal. Saunders believes that we should leave mammoths lying in peace. "I don't know that we would ever reconstitute a mammoth that was a true mammoth and not an elephant. And I'm not sure that it would have a venue other than a curiosity at a zoo or in a special park, it would not be restoring the mammoth to a landscape, in my view. I am not a big fan of that project," he said.

He added that the project does have its advocates, and the Japanese have been working with the Russians for many years to find the necessary preserved tissues that would allow them to make a clone. "But I don't think that they have achieved what it is that they need. In my view it is looking for a needle in a haystack when you are still looking for the haystack. It's going to be a while I think, but I may be wrong, and it might be in the next 10 years who knows? We will have to stay posted."