Mammoth

About Mammoth:

• Mammoths are members of an extinct species belonging to elephantid genus Mammuthus.
• Time period: They lived from the Pliocene epoch (from around 5 million years ago) into the Holocene at about 4,000 years ago.
• They existed in Africa, Europe, Asia, and North America. 
• Features
  • The various species of mammoth were commonly equipped with long, curved tusks.
  • They evolved a suite of adaptations for arctic life, including morphological traits such as small ears and tails to minimize heat loss, a thick layer of subcutaneous fat, long thick fur, and numerous sebaceous glands for insulation.
  • They also had large brown-fat hump-like deposits behind the neck that may have functioned as a heat source and fat reservoir during winter.
• IUCN Status: Extinct
• Mammoths are more closely related to living Asian elephants than African elephants. 

Key facts about Permafrost

• It is any ground—from soil to sediment to rock—that has been frozen continuously for a minimum of two years and as many as hundreds of thousands of years. 
• It can extend down beneath the earth’s surface from a few feet to more than a mile, covering entire regions, such as the Arctic tundra, or a single, isolated spot, such as a mountaintop of alpine permafrost.
• They can be found on land and below the ocean floor.
• It is found in areas where temperatures rarely rise above freezing.

Q1: What is the Holocene Epoch? 

The Holocene Epoch is the current period of geologic time. The Holocene Epoch began 12,000 to 11,500 years ago at the close of the Paleolithic Ice Age and continues through today.

News: Intact remains of a 50,000-year-old young mammoth discovered in Sibera