“Two factors of extinction are being considered”: a paleontologist on the fauna of the ice age and the cloning of ancient animals

— Yaroslav Aleksandrovich,

- There were a lot of animals during the last ice age (about 115-12 thousand years ago. -

).

If we talk about the most common, then this is a woolly rhinoceros, big-horned deer, cave bear and cave hyena.

Of the North American animals, the most famous are the short-faced bear or arctodus, dire wolf, saber-toothed tiger, etc. During the same period, horses and bison lived, as well as giant primitive bison.

During the Ice Age, there were many smaller animals on the planet that played an important role in ancient ecosystems.

• Rock paintings of people of the ice age

• Gettyimages.ru

• © Gonzalo Azumendi

-

- There were no animals of the glacial fauna when writing was born.

But in rock art, of course, images of these animals are found.

Such drawings are studied by archaeologists and applied in science.

According to them, we test, confirm or refute various theories about the color, shape and size of animals.

For example, only thanks to the drawings, scientists determined that mammoths have a hump.

Then this was confirmed with the help of the found mummies.

The Indians of North America have legends that when their ancestors walked through the lands covered with snow, they met incredible animals.

Given the fact that now the indigenous population lives in areas where snow never falls, we can assume that these legends are most likely true.

In addition, it is known that the ancestors of the Indians came from Asia to America along the Bering Isthmus - during the last ice age, there was land on the site of the modern Bering Strait.

The indigenous peoples of the Americas also have legends about giant beavers that actually lived during the last ice age.

All these legends and memories are interesting to study and analyze, but they are unlikely to help scientists prove the existence of any animal species.

What is

- There has not been a colossal evolution of flora over the past 12 thousand years.

However, there were unique biomes (sets of ecosystems of one natural and climatic zone. - 

), which no longer exist.

These, for example, include the tundra-steppe, where most of the animals of the Ice Age lived.

This zone, in its harsh climatic conditions, very much resembled the tundra: long winters and very low average annual temperatures.

However, the tundra-steppe was different in that there were many cereal plants.

In summer, the grass grew incredibly fast, covering vast areas, which is typical for the steppe.

Accordingly, she could feed mammoths, large deer and bison.

Why did

— Scientists consider two factors of extinction.

The first is climate and ecosystem change.

At the end of the ice age, it became more humid, and snow covered most of the space.

As a result, the animals could not find food and starved.

The biomes familiar to them, in particular, the tundra-steppes, also disappeared.

The area of ​​these territories changed, and by the end of the last glaciation, it had decreased several times.

The second is the influence of man on the fauna.

Just at that time, new tools began to appear in people, which allowed them to hunt more efficiently.

Most likely, these two factors coincided in time.

Some species of animals have descendants that now inhabit the tundra and live in the polar latitudes - for example, foxes, hares, squirrels, wolverines, etc. Of course, some animals have changed.

So, the modern American bison formed towards the end of the ice age.

However, there are also reindeer, bison and saigas, which were typical representatives of the Ice Age fauna and still exist.

As it turned out, camels also lived at that time, but in the southern part of the periglacial zone.

• reindeer

• Gettyimages.ru

• © Mona Dienhart / EyeEm

—

- If we talk about well-preserved mummies, then Russia is the leader in this regard.

We have a huge number of frozen bodies of animals of the Ice Age found in Yakutia (Republic of Sakha).

It is not even worth comparing with the volume of finds in other countries.

But, of course, animal mummies are also found in Canada or Alaska.

If we talk about skeletons, and not about frozen body parts, then they are found everywhere: in Western and Eastern Europe, Asia, North America.

For example, in the USA there is the so-called La Brea Ranch, where many skeletons of mammoths, saber-toothed tigers, dire wolves and other extinct animals were found in asphalt pits.

- In what territories of Russia did the animals of the Ice Age mainly live?

— There is an erroneous opinion that mammoths, saber-toothed tigers and others lived only in places covered with ice.

However, this could not be, since the animals needed something to eat.

All animals lived in the periglacial zone, which was constantly changing.

In the last ice age, it reached the Novgorod and Vologda regions.

And to the south of the glacier, right up to the Krasnodar Territory, the tundra-steppe stretched, where there were different animals.

The same zones existed beyond the Urals.

• Mammoth hunting of ancient people, illustration

• globallookpress.com

— It is

very rare

- The remains of extinct ice age animals are not preserved very well.

This requires unique conditions, the main of which is the presence of permafrost.

Both bones and frozen bodies are well preserved in such ice.

In this case, temperature plays an important role.

If we talk about the southern regions, where the temperature has repeatedly changed, as well as more ancient fossils, then other factors are already influencing here.

The first is the absence of predators, fungi and bacteria, which, respectively, could destroy, pull apart and decompose the bones.

The second factor is rapid sedimentation.

If the remains are quickly covered with sand or the like, they have a high chance of becoming a fossil later on.

Such conditions, as a rule, are formed in the seas, lakes and rivers, in particular in river deltas.

It is important that the places where the bones and other remains are located are calm.

Otherwise, they may be carried away by the current or they may collapse due to underwater mudflows and landslides.

• The remains of a mammoth and animals of the mammoth fauna, discovered on the territory of the Taimyr Peninsula and lying in the permafrost for more than 20 thousand years

• RIA News

• © Igor Mikhalev

Mostly teeth are found, as this is the strongest formation in animals.

Mammals of most periods are known to scientists precisely because of the discovered teeth.

Fragments of the skull or torso are less commonly found.

Worse preserved and thin bones.

The most difficult thing is to find soft tissues, because this requires permafrost conditions.

“

In my opinion, in order to clone a mammoth, you must first clone an elephant.

Every time scientists encounter the cloning of any animal, it turns out that there are many nuances in this process.

Nevertheless, work on cloning mammoths is being carried out in different countries, for example, in South Korea, Japan, America, Russia, etc. 

• Fossil deposits at Rancho La Brea

• Legion Media

To clone a mammoth, ideally, you need a living cell, or, in extreme cases, a dead one, but with a complete genome.

Unfortunately, even in the best-preserved mummies of mammoths and other Ice Age animals, DNA molecules are very fragmented.

Scientists have already managed to reconstruct the complete mammoth genome using computer technology.

But so far there are no methods to convert a computer model into a chemical molecule of the genetic code.

There is one more problem: a surrogate mother is needed for such a procedure.

It is not known how suitable the modern Indian elephant is, whether she will be able to bear such a cub, since it will be of different sizes and other proportions.

There is another option that is now being considered by scientists.

It does not refer to the "resurrection" of a mammoth, but rather to the "transformation" of a modern elephant into an ancient animal.

Elephant genes can be altered by genetic engineering by introducing individual mammoth genes into their DNA.

The animal should be covered with hair, it should grow a hump, etc. Such a creature was even given a name - mammophant (mammoth).

However, this project has not yet been implemented.

A few years ago, scientists made an attempt to revive mammoth cells.

They were damaged, but they were still placed in a nutrient medium for recovery.

After that, the metabolism resumed in the cells, and they began to divide.

However, massive failures occurred in the process of division and, as a result, the cells died.

If, however, such experiments are ever crowned with success, the animals of the Ice Age will certainly be able to be kept in zoos.

The fact that the planet's climatic conditions are now different from those of the ice age does not interfere with artificial breeding.

As for the return to the natural habitat, the situation is more complicated.

The tundra steppes are no more, and it is not very clear where a mammoth or a woolly rhinoceros can now live.

It is not known how these animals will behave in the steppe and whether they will be able to eat normally in the tundra. 

However, there are several projects that may solve this problem in the future.

One of these is being implemented in Russia and is called the Pleistocene Park.

On the territory of the reserve, they are trying to restore the very tundra-steppe.

The descendants of the animals of the ice age and some species that have survived to our time have already settled there.

This project has existed for several years, and perhaps a mammoth could be placed in such an area.