A Mammoth Enterprise

Providence Journal

In Ukraine and Siberia, vestiges of circular huts with foundations of huge interlocked jawbones have been discovered. Apparently, the bones of the woolly mammoth were a common building material in Paleolithic times.

Archaeologists figure that the tusks of the animal probably supported a covering of mammoth hides sewed together.

A mammoth-hunting culture appears to have thrived for tens of thousands of years, until the huge creatures ― a type of elephant adapted to extreme cold by a thick coat of fur ― became extinct, some 10,000 years ago.

Indeed, much else of mammoths still exists as well, including well-preserved frozen remains found in bogs. Siberian tribal peoples have traded with China in mammoth ivory since medieval times.

The tusks of the creature were longer and thinner than those of modern elephants, frequently exceeding 10 feet, spiraling outward before curving in to opposed points.

If there were ever an extinct animal that might be a good candidate for cloning, the mammoth, with tons of available DNA, is it.

Researchers say that its genome will be mapped out soon and, in 10 or 20 years, mammoths (the word is derived from an ancient Russian word for the animal) could once again bestride the earth.

The question is what will we do with them. Well, we could let them roam. Global warming or not, there's still plenty of sparsely inhabited frozen wasteland in Arctic and sub-Arctic Siberia, Alaska and Canada ― and plenty of mammoths' favored grasses and gorses, based on evidence collected from their frozen forebears.

There are, in fact, climate researchers who maintain, on the basis of diminished sunspot activity and other factors, that, rather than warming, the earth is probably headed for prolonged cooling.

This would be splendid news for the new mammoths, since it could increase their range, which, back in the day, extended to France and Spain.

Would humans see them as a new source of protein adapted to ``climate change"? Some descendents might prefer that to tofu.

The article is distributed by Scripps Howard News Service (www.shns.com).

[출처 : 코리아타임스]