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Mini Mammoth Once Roamed Crete
ananyo writes "Scientists can now add a 'dwarf mammoth' to the list of biological oxymorons that includes the jumbo shrimp and pygmy whale. Studies of fossils discovered last year on the island of Crete in the Mediterranean Sea reveal that an extinct species once thought to be a diminutive elephant was actually the smallest mammoth known to have existed — which, as an adult, stood no taller than a modern newborn elephant (abstract). The species is the most extreme example of insular dwarfism yet found in mammoths."
Why couldn't they have recreated a herd of these guys instead of raptors?
Think 'Petting Zoo' instead of 'dying a horrible death'
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
If only that had been mentioned in the summary!
Slightly disreputable, albeit gregarious
I thought this has been known for a while, and is the origin of the myth of the cyclops?
The fossil specimens aren't newly discovered; but there was apparently some phylogenetic wrangling about whether they were mammoths or elephants and there weren't enough specimens to get a good size estimate.
The present discovery is that the remains show distinctively mammoth characteristics and that there are enough of them to infer size.
It's not often that an article comes along, and tempts me to rename one of my body parts.
A mini mammoth makes for a mighty fine steak.
For those who may not be familiar with Girl Genius:
Mimmoths are tiny verminous mammoths. Originally somebody’s experiment, they escaped and quickly populated most of Europe. They fill the same niche as mice and tend to live alongside them. They get into machinery and push things around with their tusks, wreaking havoc.
Ehem, get the film rights! "Mini Mammoth vs. Jumbo Shrimp - The Epic Battle of the Geologic Ages!". Pretty please, before Michael Bay gets em?
Ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant.
In other news, the date of the invention of the slider has just been pushed back 18,000 years.
Mimmoth on a stick, anyone?
Dan Aris
Fun. Free. Online. RPG. BattleMaster.
Check out Wilma Flintstone's vacuum cleaner.
Or perhaps Bedrock was located on Crete?
Slightly disreputable, albeit gregarious
Because if it's as good as baby elephant, count me in!
What political party do you join when you don't like Bible-thumpers *or* hippies?
"I'll have a 6-pack of mini mammoth burgers"
"Would that be the 6-pack of mini mammoth-burgers or the mini-mammoth burgers?"
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
2 mod points left. Do I point out that you're an idiot for confusing the adjective with the noun? Or do I mod you into oblivion?
Or do I mod you, and wait till tomorrow and comment if no one else has, potentially removing my downmod? Decisions...
I thought this has been known for a while, and is the origin of the myth of the cyclops?
You're thinking of the one eyed fossils of larger variety of pachyderm found there.
Similarly, I'm wondering if these fossils are the origin of the legends of the Minitaur.
The Admin and the Engineer
What I should have said is
is that like the pygmy whale?
!
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
So, perhaps this is some sort of basis for the minotaur myth? Sure, it's not a bull, but a baby hairy elephant with tusks isn't that far off. Slap on a few thousand years of the game of telephone and you have the minotaur
I believe these are known as Mimmoths.
I drank what? -- Socrates
Yes Boo, I agree. This group could do with a swift kick in the morals.
I drank what? -- Socrates
Exactly, although I'd have to take exception to pygmy whale being described as an oxymoron. Although whales are generally very large the word 'whale' doesn't mean 'large'.
IMO even jumbo shrimp is debatable, shrimp has come to mean small/diminutive but that is derived from the name of the creature and doesn't mean small in and of itself*, where as mammoth actually meant large before it was applied to an animal.
* I'm actually guessing on that one, if I'm wrong I'm sure someone will correct me.
lol anti-intellectualism
Contrary to the popular belief, there indeed is no God.
"some pedantic slashdotter is actually going to reply to this after finding some reference to something that could arguably be a "square triangle" just to prove me wrong. "
Well, this is Slashdot, we're here for all your pedantry needs. Unfortunately the best I can do for you is a three-sided figure with internal angles adding up to 360 degrees, just like a square, or an equilateral four-sided figure with internal angles adding up to 180 degrees, just like a triangle. (Spherical and hyperbolic special cases respectively.).
"Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?" - Patrick Henry
OK, I'll play pedant with you.
The word "mammoth" does not come from any word for "large". It comes from the name "earth horn" in Mansi (so says Wikipedia). The fact that we now use the word "mammoth" to mean "large" is by analogy with the animal. As in "that's one elephant-sized headache I've got today".
Mammoths aren't actually any larger than regular African Elephants (which admittedly is pretty darned large).