A miniature descendent of the Columbian mammoth once inhabited a group of islands off the coast of California — and thrived in isolation. What caused the species to disappear?
In 1873, the geologist Robert Stearns called attention to a single, fossilized tooth on the Channel Islands off the coast of southern California. Despite being considerably small, it bore the distinct ridges of a mammoth tooth — which weren’t known to be among the island’s repertoire of fauna.
These miniature mammoths weren’t known anywhere else in the world, despite bearing striking resemblance to the larger mammoths living in California. This raises the question: If the Channel Islands were never connected to the continent, how did these shrunken replicas of North America’s largest land mammal end up so far away? Furthermore, why were they so tiny?Their story starts during the late Pleistocene, tens of thousands of years ago.
Scientists have even recorded African elephants swimming distances of up to 30 miles at a time. Given this, it seems much more feasible that the bulkier Columbian mammoths could have crossed the narrow strait between the mainland and the islands, led by the allure of fresh vegetation that arrived on the island some 80,000 years ago.As the newcomers arrived, they would have stumbled upon their own slice of island paradise.
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