Marvellous Mammoths inHuntingdonshire

Chris Thomas

Introduction

• A Journey of 3 Million Years

• Change in Climate

• Change in the Land

• Change in Mammoths and Man

Africa, 3 million years ago

Proboscidea – Animals with Trunks

• One Proboscidean

• Several Probocideans

trunk trunks

Southern MammothMammuthus meridionalis

The long walk to Huntingdonshire

Southern mammothMammuthus meridionalis

Ice Ages have cold and warm times

Glacial – a cold time Interglacial – a warm time

The Steppe MammothMammuthus trogontherii

Jeremy Moore’sWalking model

Steppe mammoth in our regionMammuthus trogontherii

Early humans arrive 800,000 years ago

Fossil footprints at Happisburgh

An early Human - Homo heidelbergensis

Hand axesmade offlint

Huntingdonshire under ice!

Huntingdonshire 130,000 years ago

Straight-tusked ElephantPalaeoloxodon antiquus

Our region during the last glaciation

Animals in our region

Bison

Woolly Mammoth

Horses

Woolly mammoths in St Ives

• Mammuthus primigenius• Smallest of the mammoths• Thick undercoat of fine hair• Longer hair on the outside• Small ears• Long curved tusks• Thick layer of fat

Frozen mammoths in Siberia

Berezovka mammoth found in 1901

Baby Yuka found in 2010

Modern St Ives

What we have learnt

• Our climate haschanged

• The land haschanged

• Mammoths &humans havechanged

And finally…

We have just been visited by comet Lovejoy.

The last time it visited 11,500 years ago,There were still mammoths alive!

Learn more at the Norris Museum!