- Published on: 05 February 2019
- You can check out Google's Science Journal app at https://g.co/sciencejournal
The mammoths fossils found on the Channel Islands off the coast of southern California are much smaller than their relatives found on the mainland. They were so small that they came to be seen as their own species. How did they get there? And why were they so small?
Thanks to Ceri Thomas for the mammoth reconstructions throughout this episode. Check out more of Ceri's paleoart at http://alphynix.tumblr.com and http://nixillustration.com
Thanks to Julio Lacerda and Studio 252mya for the Palaeoloxodon illustrations. You can find more of Julio's work here: https://252mya.com/gallery/julio-lacerda
Produced in collaboration with PBS Digital Studios: http://youtube.com/pbsdigitalstudios
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References:
http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1940&context=usgsstaffpub
https://www.nhm-wien.ac.at/jart/prj3/nhm/data/uploads/mitarbeiter_dokumente/goehlich/2016/Semprebon_et_al_2016%20Dietary%20reconstruction%20of%20pygmy%20mammoths%20from%20Santa%20Rosa%20Island%20California.pdf
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/288262862_A_late_Pleistocene_pollen_record_from_San_Miguel_Island_California_preliminary_results
“Extreme expansion of the olfactory receptor gene repertoire in African elephants and evolutionary dynamics of orthologous gene groups in 13 placental mammals.” Niimura Y, Matsui A, Touhara K. 2014.
https://web.archive.org/web/20060508113748/http://www.cq.rm.cnr.it/elephants2001/pdf/473_475.pdf
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S104061821100190X
https://kundoc.com/pdf-on-the-importance-of-stratigraphic-control-for-vertebrate-fossil-sites-in-channe.html
https://www.app.pan.pl/archive/published/app61/app001362014.pdf
https://www.jstor.org/stable/2844657?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.541.6488&rep=rep1&type=pdf
Evolution of Island Mammals: Adaptation and Extinction of Placental Mammals on Islands by Alexandra van der Geer, George Lyras, John de Vos and Michael Dermitzakis.
Niimura Y, Matsui A, Touhara K. 2014. Extreme expansion of the olfactory receptor gene repertoire in African elephants and evolutionary dynamics of orthologous gene groups in 13 placental mammals. Genome Res doi: 10.1101/gr.169532.113
https://www.nhm-wien.ac.at/jart/prj3/nhm/data/uploads/mitarbeiter_dokumente/goehlich/2016/Semprebon_et_al_2016%20Dietary%20reconstruction%20of%20pygmy%20mammoths%20from%20Santa%20Rosa%20Island%20California.pdf
"Sea level, paleogeography, and archeology on California's Northern
Channel Islands," by Reeder-Myers et al. 2015.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1940&context=usgsstaffpub
https://web.archive.org/web/20060508113748/http://www.cq.rm.cnr.it/elephants2001/pdf/473_475.pdf
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.896.6234&rep=rep1&type=pdf
https://kundoc.com/pdf-on-the-importance-of-stratigraphic-control-for-vertebrate-fossil-sites-in-channe.html
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S104061821100190X
http://natural-history.uoregon.edu/research/paleocoastal-research-project/santarosae-island
https://www.nhm-wien.ac.at/jart/prj3/nhm/data/uploads/mitarbeiter_dokumente/goehlich/2016/Semprebon_et_al_2016%20Dietary%20reconstruction%20of%20pygmy%20mammoths%20from%20Santa%20Rosa%20Island%20California.pdf
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1940&context=usgsstaffpub - Runtime : 12:15
- dinosaurs dinos paleo paleontology scishow eons pbs pbs digital studios hank green john green complexly fossils natural history California Channel Islands mammoth Columbian mammoths pygmy mammoths Santa Rosa Island Robert Stearns tusk Pleistocene Epoch Santarosae Foster’s Rule Insular Dwarfism Younger Dryas glaciers Palaeoloxodon
COMMENTS: 40
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Zack Morrison 1 weeks ago"Been spendin' most their lives livin' in a (pygmy) mammoth's paradise..." by Coolio (ice age) ft. The Notorious P.Y.G.
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Iamnotpau 2 weeks ago
Am I the only one that always gets so proud when a species advances to new lands or survives for a long period of time ?
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Sergio Alcantara 2 weeks ago
“Few thousand kilometers away” Thank you so much American companies for caring more about foreigners then us, the ones who made you in the first place. Never watching this channel again. You American companies that leave us for foreigners sicken me.
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W.W. 1 months ago
Looking to clone a pygmy Pachyderm...tuskless obviously. Anyone have some DNA? Great Danes aren't that great
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Antoine Fenech 2 months ago
Here in Malta like in Cyprus we fosilis of small Elephants. check Ghar Dalam.
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Francis Lim 2 months ago
Ever wonder why early humans were smaller in sizes and under developed likes during the WWII,Japanese,Chinese and Koreans were short and small due to lack of food,understanding about nutrients intakes were non existent,but modern Asian are growing larger,even the Knights in Armour are on average about 5 foot tall.
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Kirla 2 months ago
So, how many prehistoric species have we probably vanished? (previous modern anthropogenic mass extinction)
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Lil Ra Ra 2 months ago
Small for a elephant,but still could probably flip over a car with ease lmfao
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Michael Misanik 3 months ago
Just wondering could you guys do an episode about the once massive Amblyrhiza inundata that lived on St Martin and Anguilla.
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El_Guapo 13 3 months ago
Dang it. We could have had small domesticated breeds of mammoths in place of horses. They would have been way more useful too, as they could use their trunks to lift things.
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matthew ulrich 3 months ago
2:40 sounds like global warming happened over and over those mega mammals farted too much !!!!
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Carson Joshua Segales 3 months ago
Can foster's rule apply to humans also?? Is this why people like from the philippines are small in size?
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Emerson Lamond 4 months ago
at 8:27 you have Norfolk island pines, I don't think they were present in california at this time period
5:10 Is it possible there may have been something in the water which could pick off the smaller predators but not huge animals like mammoth? Orcas for an example. A swimming wolf even a large wolf would have been an easy target for an orca.