Mammoths

Vita:

BSEE, 1950 University of Minnesota

U.S. Navy Commission as electronic specialist, 1951

Honeywell, Inc. 40 years in design and development of automatic controls for aircraft and spacecraft. Lead systems engineer on E1B/S2F automatic control system, lead systems engineer on Apollo command module control system – in addition to various aircraft and spacecraft systems. Independent research in ancient history, archaeology and dating techniques. Participation in excavation activities in Glen Rose, Texas and Hanson Ranch, Wyoming. President, Twin Cities Creation Science Association. Author of TEXAS TRACKS and ARTIFACTS.

Abstract: The secular view of mammoths centers on an Ice Age environment and extinction some 10,000 years ago. Some creationists view the mammoth remains as evidence from Noah's Flood. These large animals could never live in an Arctic environment such as we find in Siberia and northern Alaska, primarily because there is no food supply compatible with their needs. Scientific studies of these animals lead to the conclusions that they were from a temperate climate, there was a mass extinction of many of them, and many were buried along with trees and other vegetation after which the land became frozen by a sudden and permanent climate change. The cause of the extinction and burial appears to be a brief but massive flow of water from a post-Flood disturbance to the earth.

Introduction

The largest quantities of woolly mammoth remains are found in Arctic and sub-arctic locations. They had long hair and underwool, and those found with meat still on their bones showed a heavy layer of fat under the skin. From this evidence the secular view of mammoths is that these large animals, by evolutionary processes, were adapted to living in a cold climate. The frozen remains were attributed to the hazards of living in such a climate. But from earliest scientific studies of these animals, a different picture emerges.

I. Characteristics

Early research proved that the mammoth was distinct from modern elephants. Although related, it is a closer relative to the Asian elephant than the African elephant based on blood tests. It was not a tropical beast, neither was it adapted to living in the Arctic. Adaptation is supposedly based on thick skin, long fur and underwool, and fat deposits under the skin. Mammoth skin, essentially identical to that of the Indian elephant, does not have oil glands. Fur without oil glands is adaptation to a warm climate. The fat layer is not for insulation, but an indication of an adequate food supply. Preserved food found in the mouths and stomachs of several specimens contained temperate climate grasses which do not grow in the Arctic today, but 2000 kilometers farther south. Temperate climate plants and animals go together. The companions of the mammoth were woolly rhinoceros, bison, sheep, horses, bears, lions and deer.

II. Climate Conditions

The climate of Siberia and northern Alaska during the time of the mammoths was not the same as the present climate. Even Charles Lyell concluded that the mammoth Arctic climate was much warmer than it is today. The present tundra mosses and grasses which grow only about eight to ten weeks of the year are unpalatable and even toxic to large herbivores. Mammoths would be living in a practical desert under the present conditions.

Large rooted trunks of trees are found in beds containing mammoths. Large trees cannot grow over permafrost. Animals living with the mammoths, horses and bison, could not have endured the mires of Arctic summer which make travel almost impossible.

III. How Did Mammoths Die?

Some modern ideas of how mammoths died include falling into ice crevasses, falling over a cliff in a storm, falling through thin ice or being buried by a landslide.

Scientific analysis of bodies and other remains in the tundra provide the following information. Remains are for the most part just bones scattered about and piled together with trees, volcanic ash, vegetation and bones of other animals. Some animals were torn apart by violent action. Animals with preserved flesh are buried in the frozen tundra near its upper surface and usually at higher elevations. Decay began before the bodies were frozen, but once frozen they never thawed until exposed by erosion or excavation. The animals died suddenly in the late summer as indicated by food found in their stomach or mouth. Frozen mammoth remains and other animal remains increase in number the farther north one goes in Siberia, being most numerous in the New Siberian Islands.

The probable cause of the death of so many animals is described by H.H. Howorth.

"A great catastrophe occurred by which the mammoth and its companions were overwhelmed over a large part of the earth. This catastrophe involved a brief but widespread rush of water which not only killed the animals but also buried them under continuous beds of loam and gravel."

IV. Dating the Catastrophe

The big question is "When did it happen?" Based on Biblical history, the event happened after the Flood of Noah. Not all people agree with this conclusion.

But there were other effects of the orientation change. Great tidal waves were reported by the Chinese and North American Indians. The Sahara dried out and became a desert. Its present condition appears to have begun after 2000 B.C. The Tarim basin in China was once populated with cities and settlements and forests. Now it is mostly desert. There is evidence that India, Pakistan and Iran all had abundant rainfall before the climate changed. Large areas of former agricultural land on the India-Pakistan border are now desert. American deserts once had abundant rainfall based on pollen and tree remnants found at archaeological sites. All the world's deserts seem to have started about 3500 years ago. This is the same period identified by Charles Ginenthal for the extinction of the mammoths. It is also the time of the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt.

References

1.Stewart, J.M., Frozen Mammoths from Siberia bring Ice Ages to vivid life, SMITHSONIAN, Vol 8 No. 9, Dec. 1977

2.Hapgood, C.H., The Extinction of the Mammoths and the Mastodons, Ch. 10, The Path of the Pole

3.Howorth, H.H., The Mammoth and the Flood, London 1887

4.Farrand, W.R., Frozen Mammoths and Modern Geology, SCIENCE, 17 March, 1961

5.Dillow, J.C., The Riddle of the Frozen Giants, Ch. 10, The Waters Above, 1982

6.Ginenthal, Charles, The Extinction of the Mammoth, The Velikovskian, Vol III, Nos. 2,3, 1997