Employees of the ‘Museum of Nature and Man’ have collected a paleontological collection, which presents several thousand bones of different animals: woolly rhinoceroses, bison, elk, hares, wolves, deer. But the overwhelming majority of finds belong to woolly mammoths. Fossil remains of ancient elephants were concentrated at the Lugovskoye site near Khanty-Mansiysk. Using the radiocarbon method, scientists were able to date the finds to the period of (16–12 thousand years ago).
Mammoths ate a variety of plant foods - grasses, plant shoots, willow branches, larches, pines. They consumed up to 300 kg of pasture per day - the animals had to chew for 18–20 hours a day. The ancient elephants were helped to cope with the difficult process of feeding with massive jaws featuring six teeth.
The most distinctive pair of mammoth teeth are the incisors reborn into tusks. They grew in the upper jaw, reached a length of more than 4 m in large individuals and served so that the animal could get to the food hidden under a layer of snow and ice. There were four chewing teeth: they grew symmetrically in the upper and lower jaw and were arranged according to the principle of a grater: the alternation of soft dentin and hard enamel created ridges on the surface. The molars of a large mammoth could have up to 27 ridges. The researchers found that the ridge pattern changed depending on the species of the ancient elephant.
Mammoths were born with a full set of miniature milk teeth. As they matured, the tusks could change once, with the chewing teeth changing up to six times. During the change of teeth, a new one ‘leaked in’ from the canal to the place of the old one. The presented exhibit from the collection of the ‘Museum of Nature and Man’ shows how this happened: there are four teeth in the lower jaw instead of the usual two. The last change took place at the age of about 20 years. The animal used these molars until the end of its life, the duration of which averaged 40–45 years. If, for some reason they were erased before the time allotted by nature, the mammoth died of hunger.
Mammoths ate a variety of plant foods - grasses, plant shoots, willow branches, larches, pines. They consumed up to 300 kg of pasture per day - the animals had to chew for 18–20 hours a day. The ancient elephants were helped to cope with the difficult process of feeding with massive jaws featuring six teeth.
The most distinctive pair of mammoth teeth are the incisors reborn into tusks. They grew in the upper jaw, reached a length of more than 4 m in large individuals and served so that the animal could get to the food hidden under a layer of snow and ice. There were four chewing teeth: they grew symmetrically in the upper and lower jaw and were arranged according to the principle of a grater: the alternation of soft dentin and hard enamel created ridges on the surface. The molars of a large mammoth could have up to 27 ridges. The researchers found that the ridge pattern changed depending on the species of the ancient elephant.
Mammoths were born with a full set of miniature milk teeth. As they matured, the tusks could change once, with the chewing teeth changing up to six times. During the change of teeth, a new one ‘leaked in’ from the canal to the place of the old one. The presented exhibit from the collection of the ‘Museum of Nature and Man’ shows how this happened: there are four teeth in the lower jaw instead of the usual two. The last change took place at the age of about 20 years. The animal used these molars until the end of its life, the duration of which averaged 40–45 years. If, for some reason they were erased before the time allotted by nature, the mammoth died of hunger.
