Re: Bringing Back Mammoths (was Dinosaur Mating Displays)

[Nick Pharris <npharris@umich.edu>]

Quoting Dann Pigdon <dannj@alphalink.com.au>:

> Quoting Raptorial Talon <raptorialtalon@gmail.com>:
>
> > That said, being able to study a living, behaving member of a species
> > that was extinct before written records has to be considered a major
> > scientific opportunity.
>
> Technically speaking, mammoths survived well into recorded history.  
> The youngest known
> mammoth remains were found on Wrangel Island, and may be as recent  
> as 3700 years old.
>
> Of course it's likely there was no-one around to see them and write  
> about them.

There were certainly people around in the Siberian high arctic 3700  
years ago (presumably including ancestors of the Yukaghir and the  
Chukchi), and there is evidence of human settlement on Wrangel Island  
approximately contemporaneous with the last mammoths (Dikov, N. N.  
(1988). "The Earliest Sea Mammal Hunters of Wrangell Island". Arctic  
Anthropology 25 (1): 80?93).

But no, they wouldn't have had writing.

--
****************************************************************
Nicholas J. Pharris