Lesson 2 - Mankind 2 Manni

Question 1

What is extinction?

Answer 1

The gradual process by which a group of related organisms dies out.

Question 2

What are megafauna?

Answer 2

Megafauna are large animals that existed during the Ice Age, such as the Woolly Mammoths.

Question 3

For how long was the Woolly Mammoth supposedly preserved in the ice for?

Answer 3

40,000 years

Question 4

What is the closest species to the Woolly Mammoths?

Answer 4

Elephants

Question 5

What was the name given to the Woolly Mammoth calf found preserved in the ice?

Answer 5

Lyuba

Question 6

What are scientists debating about Lyuba’s death?

Answer 6

Whether she suffocated in mud or drowned in water.

Question 7

What is it that allowed her body to be preserved so well?

Answer 7

Her body was immediately entombed in a mixture of silt and clay.

Question 8

How did the silt and clay help preserve her body?

Answer 8

The wet silt and wet clay sealed out oxygen and thwart aerobic microbes that otherwise would have broken down her soft tissue.

Question 9

In what year was Lyuba’s body discovered?

Answer 9

2006

Question 10

How was she exposed to humans?

Answer 10

1) River undercut a block of permafrost
2) Block melted which exposed her body
3) Floodwaters washed it downstream to a sandbar
4) Smell of lactic acid warded off scavengers

Question 11

What is the human explanation for the extinction of the Woolly Mammoth?

Answer 11

They were hunted for food (meat), weaponry (tusks) and warmth and insulation (skin/fur).

Question 12

What is the climate explanation for the extinction of the Woolly Mammoth?

Answer 12

They spread across Asia and were adapted to the cold, therefore when the temperature rose they struggled to survive:

• altered vegetation
• 90% of habitats destroyed

The melting permafrost / tundra helped preserve the bodies of the Woolly Mammoths.