Giant Mammoth Skull Discovered in Oklahoma

[Astronuc]

Giant Mammoth Skull Discovered by Bulldozer Operator
https://www.yahoo.com/news/giant-mammoth-skull-discovered-bulldozer-operator-134212502.html

The skull belonged to a Columbian mammoth.

These giants were plentiful across the plains of Oklahoma during the Pleistocene epoch, which lasted from about 1.8 million to 11,700 years ago, said Leland Bement of the Oklahoma Archaeological Survey.

Apparently there are a few findings of mammoth fossils every year.

Like other Columbian mammoths (Mammuthus columbi), this one was not the cold-adapted type and preferred more temperate stomping grounds in southern and central North America. The woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius), the kind portrayed in the "Ice Age" movies, would have called the chilly tundra home.

The Columbian variety was also much larger than the woollies, with Columbian males reaching up to twice the size of woolly males, according to Hendrik Poinar, an evolutionary geneticist at McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada. Columbian mammoths also arrived in North America about 1.5 million years ago, whereas woolly mammoths stepped onto the continent some 400,000 years ago, said Poinar, who spoke with Live Science in 2011.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbian_mammoth

http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/mammal/mammoth/about_mammoths.html

http://library.sandiegozoo.org/factsheets/_extinct/mammoth/mammoth.htm

http://earthwatch.org/expeditions/mammoth-graveyard-in-south-dakota

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

3 times the size as Wolly!? Wow!

 

[Hercuflea]

Does DNA survive that long? I've read that some other preserved mammoths still have intact DNA.

 

[jim mcnamara]

I think a straightforward answer would be: It depends on the conditions following death and during burial.

The state of the art in DNA recovery reached a point where it might be possible to play "Jurassic Park" games with a modern female elephant and create a live mammoth clone. http://www.nbcnews.com/science/weird-science/woolly-mammoth-clones-closer-ever-n385831