ON THE EXTINCTION OF THE MAMMOTH. 
By H. N&EvvVILLE. 
[ With 3 plates. ] 
One of the most widely believed assumptions of general biology 
is, perhaps, that the mammoth was especially fitted to withstand 
severe cold. All the authors—paleontologists properly speaking, 
geologists, zoologists, even students of prehistory—who have had 
occasion to write about this witness of the earliest ages of humanity, 
agree on its adaptation to a cold climate. And it is surprising the 
weakness of the arguments which are brought forward, a weakness 
which is imperfettly concealed by the great word “adaptation” too 
often used, as was done in the past, with the virtus dormitiva, and 
as is still frequently done with formulas of the same kind. 
On this foundation, regarded as indisputable, of the mammoth’s 
adaptation to cold, have been developed numerous courses of rea- 
soning, all of which are primarily concerned with reconciling this 
power of resistance to cold with the brutal fact that the animal 
which was supposed to have benefited by it disappeared, while others, 
placed under identical circumstances, survived. 
The study of the frozen remains of mammoths found in Siberia 
and that of the environment in which these animals lived, remnants 
of which are preserved along with their own, have furnished numer- 
ous and interesting data, which are, however, less striking than the 
things imagined by scientists. The vegetable remains found with 
the mammoths throw some light on this question of environment, 
without, it appears, being sufficient to explain it clearly. Even with 
regard to this subject there is material for controversy. Howarth 
admitted that the fauna and flora which give this northern environ- 
ment its character are mixed with Mediterranean elements whose 
presence complicates the problem.” Reid asserts positively that the 
plants found with the mammoths are not characteristic of a cold 
climate.2 One fact, in any event, is clear—the Siberian mammoths 
died in an environment which was cold enough for the remains, 
frozen at the time of death, to be preserved after a fashion to our day. 
Admitting that these proboscidians were especially resistant to 
cold, it was necessary to find causes able to overcome this resistance. 
1 Translated, with permission, by Gerrit S. Miller, jr., from L’Anthropologie, July, 1919. 
2 Geological Magazine, vol. 8, p. 310. 1881. 
8 Geological Magazine, yol. 8, p. 505. 1881. 
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