Mammoths vs. Mastodons: Can we 'de-extinct' them both?
Vložit
- čas přidán 1. 12. 2016
- There's been a lot of talk and research interest around the possibility of resurrecting certain groups of organisms (or, at least their genomes) from extinction, with Woolly Mammoths being prime candidates for such an endeavor. But what about a closely related group, like the Mastodons? What's the criteria for possible 'de-extinction'? SO MANY QUESTIONS.
↓ More info + Links! ↓
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Natural News from The Field Museum, our new news show!: bit.ly/2e0bWzN
You know you love to read articles as much as I do:
"'De-extinction' of the woolly mammoth: A step closer." Washington Post www.washingtonpost.com/news/m...
"Mastodon genome sheds light on human evolution," New Scientist www.newscientist.com/article/...
"Mammoth and Mastodon Teeth and Museums," Universities Space Research Association epod.usra.edu/blog/2011/11/mam...
'Mammuthus exilis from the California Channel Islands: Height, Mass, and Geologic Age," Institute for Wildlife Studies iws.org/CISProceedings/7th_CIS...
"The Pygmy Mammoth," National Park Service www.nps.gov/chis/learn/histor...
"The island rule in large mammals: paleontology meets ecology," International Journal of Organic Evolution onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10...
"American mastodon extirpation in the Arctic and Subarctic predates human colonization and terminal Pleistocene climate change," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences www.pnas.org/content/111/52/18...
Special thanks to Bill Simpson for helping us with this episode!
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Credits:
Producer, Writer, Creator, Host:
Emily Graslie
Producer, Director, Editor, Graphics:
Brandon Brungard
Producer, Camera:
Sheheryar Ahsan
-------------------------------------------------------------------
NEW!! Brain Scoop Merch: bit.ly/29J9SJw
Help support our videos! bit.ly/1TjMRAo
Under 'Designation,' put 'The Brain Scoop' - all proceeds go exclusively towards helping the show. We appreciate whatever you can give!
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Come hang out in our Subreddit: / thebrainscoop
egraslie
Twitters: @ehmee
Facebook: / thebrainscoop
Tumblr: thebrainscoop.tumblr.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------
This episode is supported by and filmed on location at:
The Field Museum in Chicago, IL
(www.fieldmuseum.org)
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Came here for science and a 'Mastodon' reference... Was not disappointed
I think you would like mastodon.social! :) It's similar to Twitter, but better.
7catstied2gether Didn't expect it and was pleasantly surprised!
7catstied2gether same but it's appreciated right?
Mastodon put on a great show, saw them in memphis last summer
7catstied2gether I was very impressed as well. We need more references to metal in common videos.
To answer your questions:
1. Yes
2. My house
"... why not, say... mastodons?" *Mastodon plays in the background*
Thanks for the laugh, that was awesome =)
Surely you meant *Mastodawesome*
Do you know what song it was exactly that was playing?
Didnt sound like a mastodon song to me, more along the lines of royalty free music in my opinion
How about we first focus on keeping the elephants alive?
ikr
Why not multitask?
Madisyn Bowen multitusk
Well you rarely see elephants so I mean uhhhhhh... :/
We can walk and chew gum at the same time. Science such as this would actually help us maintain the elephants.
Should we: yes!
Where would we put them: Everywhere!
mammoths in iceland would be kickass.
AlmostSwedish canada
Should we: YES!
Where would be put them: PLEISTOCENE PARK
*Frnkn shw let's make sure they don't break out though I mean it would make a good movie but still
Terrible analogy overall.
V
Canada is a good start I suppose
yeah and because of yellow stone an ice age could start again and maybe extinct half of the animals that we have on earth
Thinking the same thing lol
@@americantemplar6553 north America
Emily! You don't even know how much I love you for that Mastodon reference!
I personally think that we should try to bring back anything that we (humans) have personally caused to go extinct.
that being said though, environments worldwide have changed drastically in the last few hundred years alone. climates are changing, invasive animals have spread out and there's a lot of extinctions going on as we speak. some species simply will not survive in what was once their home, and others will upset the already tenuous balance struck in some. we need to be REALLY careful with this and i'm sorry to say that having some romantic idea of 'restoring what we ruined' isn't going to help.
I find it interesting how this is, in some ways, an extension of the kind of 'rewilding' debates you get in Europe.
In the UK, for example, we got rid of all native predators capable of killing deer (bears, lynxs and finally wolves). Clearly, the ecological consequences of that are bound to be vast - there has been quite a lot of research in places like Yellowstone showing how the removal (and reintroduction) of large predators can have a cascade effect on the rest of the ecosystem. The problem is that in most parts of the UK there haven't been large predators for hundreds of years and in the intervening period almost every inch of the country has been managed or shaped in some way by human activity. So what exactly is 'natural'?
This is exacerbated by the deer population rising dramatically in the 20th century as a result of land use changes and the fact that, while in mainland Europe wolves and other carnivores are recolonising habitats on their own, that can't happen on an island.
The mammoth thing is a similar deal, just on a much longer time-frame.
We can't even keep the existing bloody elephant and rhino populations safe from poaching. How can we create, introduce, and protect test tube creations?
I agree, but we didn't wipe out the mammoths.
someone else indeed
thumb up for Mastodon pun
We need puppy mammoths. Needs to happen.
OJagg1 yes yes yes yes
Puppy sized elephants
OJagg1 yes
or elephant sized puppies
Puppy mammoths? That's like saying jumbo shrimp!
I cannot believe this channel has less than a million subs. Superb videos. Well thought out and researched data, pleasant and well spoken host, entertaining to boot?
Keep it up everyone
welcome to Pleistocene park!
*amazing John williams theme*
Araanor There's a collegehumor video of that already, go watch it if you haven't!
This comment is so severely underrated.
Good idea. M.
Plot twist: the 10 different Mammuthus species' genetic information is more convoluted than previously thought, with some even suggesting that they were actually just one species adapted to live in various habitats www.eartharchives.org/articles/north-american-mammoths-likely-interbred-with-one-another/
Which leads us back to the same old question: WHAT IS A SPECIES?
Good question Franz, spoiler alert there is no one single agreed upon definition and lines are blurry and we don't really know what a species is because time is not linear:
czcams.com/video/9fOfFlMe6ek/video.html
Still one of my fave videos from you!
Franz Anthony This thread is wonderful.
large tundra's in Siberia. thogeter with reindeers, bisons and horses
Mammoths are more native to America, so Canada would likely be where they would end up.
Mammoths lived throughout the northern hemisphere, but a problem would be the fact that the ecosystem has changed since then. The steppes mammoths once grazed on have been replaced by forests, so they'd starve to death.
It's more likely that de-extinct mammoths will be a zoo attraction forever.
RomrotMechanikos mammoths were first found in Siberia and mammoths were found near my town in the Netherlands
So change the ecosystem!
lasschesteven When the world was in an ice age. But the mammoths that existed in reletively recent history existed in America.
We could put the mammoths in my house. I have a yard.
eustacia03 Especially if they are puppy-sized?
eustacia03 You will need a very big pooper scooper. Or maybe not. Elephants eat other elephant dung to recycle gut bacteria. Mammoths probably would do the same.
Ret Samys yas
put them in Russia or Alaska
robert bailey Mammoths still need Vegetation, Cold places s a no go.
0:52 HAHAHA I think he's just inside of a super clean room( that I don't know why) opening a Nitrogen refrigerator that usually stores BAC's library of genomes. Today things are moving to a more giant refrigerator with liquid nitrogen, because it's way more energy efficient.
The detail, the precise info, the camera shots and the editing on this video is astounding. It's why I love this channel and wished it would be as big as SciShow or Veritasium, because you're definitely at their quality level.
Aah, also on the subject of De-Extinction. I think it will become quite a significant matter of reacquiring extinct species. The decline of all modern taxa due to human activity is no joke. Ecologists and geologists all agree today we live in the Antropocene, a era marked by major decline of several life forms, a new big extinction event that may be as big as the *Great Dying* (or P-Tr extinction event).
However we know nothing about the world itself, so in order to preserve this info for the future we must try to acquire as much data as possible now if we want to provide our future generations with a verisimilar version of the past, and not just bones and stuffed animals.
These days, it's standard practices to not only preserve the bones/skins of specimens coming through the Museum - we also take tissue samples of all of them to preserve that genetic information, too!
***** Indeed! And store those tissues in either something different than formaldehyde or at least conserve the genome inside of BAC's(for animals, I think plants you can actually conserve in something that doesn't even require this technique)
a. awesome video b. i really enjoyed the sound design and graphic feel of this episode.
zentouro I
We love how you cite your image sources right in the video and will try to do the same thing. Thanks for being a great model.
Keep up the good work, always love your videos!
What the world needs now, is love, sweet love
and some giant fucking sloths! Am I right, or what?
You right!
You'll need some sort of apex predator to keep that population in check; we'll need to bring back smilodon as well. Everyone loves cats, right? xD
We are the apex predator. No need to bring in other species. Put them on Iceland and charge 100 mil usd for each kill. Jack up the price if there are too many willing. I beliebe that even with that pricetag the population would be in check.
Did you know there are sightings of megatherium-looking animals by the natives in the amazonian rainforest?
Yes! Now if one of these sightings would result in a living specimen that scientists could study, we would be way ahead of the game.
Great video Emily! Keep them coming. :)
Yes, Mammoths should be brought back. it would be a logistic nightmare to feed and carefore. but the concept de-extinction would have a great posterchild (the Mammoth) to get massive legitimacy and financial support
Aj Franklin I don't want to deal with the food chain :/ feels like a hassle
There is a place called Pleistocene Park, owned and operated by the Zimovs, in Siberia.
We'll it's happening as we speak, hell the wooly mammoth 🦣 😎 is probably already roaming the earth 🌎
Love this channel and can't get enough of it
On top of how awesome you already are, you referenced Mastodon. Rock on!
As soon as I saw this video I opened it and liked it. Keep em coming! I want to see a video on Hercules beetles coming out soon
Keep up the good work :)
Recently saw the Bristle Mammoth in Ann Arbor. It's one thing to see pictures comparing them to humans in size, but to see their skulls is something different. They're HUGE! And their tusks are AMAZING. If anybody else is interested in these guys, go to Ann Arbor! The amount of deductions they've been able to get from one big skull is incredible.
This video was so awesome, I had to subscribe immediately. I read something in National Geographic about mastodons and of course went straight to CZcams. I love reading!!
This is one of my favorite episodes, Emily!
you are an excellent presenter. you don't rush. you are articulate. your videos are so well built. which i could elaborate on but won't right now. you're videos are great for the classroom
My question would be, if we have the technology, why don't we bring back something like the black rhino, which was only wiped out a couple of years ago. There are other rhinos that could be used to help with the effort, and they've been in Africa recently enough, one need not wonder where to put them. Just a thought. Save things becoming extinct now, rather than things the planet wiped out long ago.
Mastodon!
Pterodactyl!
Triceratops!
Saber-toothed tiger!
Tyrannosaurus!
Tigers are endangered now. They are apex prexators today, and do not co-exist well with humans. God only knows what dangers sabre tooth cats would present.
what a funny twist to a factual documentation! I have to say that already seeing some of the things behind this already from other shows is very convincing that we can bring them back and I'd love to see them come back too. one thing that could effect it is where ever we put them -say in a cold environment, wouldn't they be facing up against or take over other herd grazers like bison and other fauna like that and cause a unbalance in the food chain? in the end this was really great to listen too and I learnt something new - mastodon puns, but with all jokes aside this was really interesting. =)
Nature enthusiast well in places like Russia or north candida the open places are full of caribou and they breed faster then elephants so I doubt they will have much issue with them
Quintessential info. Great stuff.
Going to have to name my Mastodon tribute band "Gomphothere".
Great video.
"Puppy-sized Mammoths" WOW! Who wouldn't want one? The ultimate designer pet maybe? :-)
What a fantastic host/presenter.
just came back from the royal museum in Victoria BC, they have a great exhibit on this subject,,, highly recommend it!
It felt fast paced. Was it, though? That's what it felt like.
Was there a particular reason to make it so?
Dont get me wrong, top quality, awesome to watch, very educative, loved it...just needed to pause and rewind it... like ten times. So it made me wonder....
one of the coolest cutest 'nerds' on youtube, thanks for teaching me about mammoths
Nice video
Can I just say that the editing for The Brain Scoop has been freaking awesome these past few months? Let's give a round of applause to Brandon Brungard!
I love this channel.
great vid
Hi brainscoop! I wonder, are you a biologist? Or is something else (like idk, genetic engineer) your area of expertise?
Never knew mammoths and mastodons were so different kinda thought, it was like a class/phylum sort of relationship However now I know they differ quite a bit different.
I don't know how much overlap there is between Mastodon fans and fans of the mastodon but you went there and I appreciate it
I always enjoy brain scoop videos so much!!
Wow, I did not see the Mastodon (band) joke coming, props for that!
cool video i just did my own custom of mastodon for my channel... i was inspired by the power ranger then growing up hahaha... but i had mammoth first just this year also... i just hope more people will be more aware about this epic creature they are awesome ... thanks for the infovideo its cool....
What would be some possible consequences of bringing a species like this back?
This is a big topic of debate in science with many different facets on both sides. Like, the amount of financial support being poured into 'de-extinction' programs is seen as misguided by some, in light of current high rates of extinction still occurring today. Some argue for that kind of support instead be used to stabilize declining environments that are still around and not try to bring something back that went extinct possibly because of environmental changes we don't yet understand. We don't always know what these animals ate - what if that plant is now extinct, too? And mammoths are huge animals that require a lot of food. Will they be competing against other grazers in whatever habitat we put them in? If a suitable habitat doesn't exist... is it okay to keep them in captivity? And if so... what, exactly, have we 'preserved' after all?
But at the same time, if we aren't looking into ways of preserving the unique genomes of these extinct organisms -- they very well could be gone forever, even if in the future we as a collective global society have a better grasp on human-created climate impact and habitat loss. There are an infinite number of questions surrounding this topic and I'd love to hear more thoughts.
The financial argument against de-extinction is fairly strong right now. These genetic experiments look more like hot-shot projects done for attention rather than good science. We can barely stabilize our existing elephant and rhino populations thanks to changing water and forest resources. The nature reserves that exist are scarcely allowing for genetic diversity in the primate and bird species we are trying to preserve. From whose environment are we going to chunk out a safe, poacher-free place to experiment on test-tube wildlife? If there is such money and resources what, other than hubris, justifies it going toward a genetic experiment rather than existing endangered wildlife?
Hypatia4242 While I wouldn't disagree with a word you have written, another answer to your rhetorical question (which I shall answer nevertheless) is sheer coolness. Something can be a foolish waste of money but very cool all the same.
I'd absolutely love to see a mammoth in the flesh.
+Joshua Rosen: I get it. I just had this debate about going to Mars. It is cool and, like de-extinction, it draws on our natural instincts to explore and experiment. I want to see a mammoth too (and Mars). Maybe mammoths on Mars?
A UCSB alumn here and I can say that word on the street in the archaeology dept. is that yes, there are already people working on bringing back the pygmy mammoth! It's an exciting time to be alive! :D
A curious question. I suppose at the end of all your videos the words you play back is something like "..it still has brains on it!" .. Was that it? What's the story behind it? :)
this was a fire video
TIL: Emily is almost puppy sized.
Let's remember we are happily watching Modern Elephants go extinct.
nice vud. u just earned ur sekf a new sub
There is no slider bar!??? How do I control the playback?
The only thing I missed in this video was a map showing the historic range of the two genera. Is one available?
humans: *wipe out mastodon*
humans: *hunt mammoth to extinction*
humans: *recklessly heat up planet with global warming*
humans: "Well that took a lot of work *whew*. Okay. Now let's bring 'em back!"
Can you do another dissection video?
I was patiently awaiting the puppy-sized mammoth reference, and was certainly not disappointed.
yassss i thoroughly enjoyed this.
We can't even keep the elephants alive...So we better do it before they go extinct too.
Just what I was thinking. Lets try to keep the alive, alive, before we try to resurrect the dead.
oh hang on - that elephant brooch?! That's adorable!
Just imagine how much food can a mammoth's corpse provide for animals like: The Siberian Tiger, Gray Wolf packs, Bears and all sorts of other smaller predators during the long cold winters in Siberia and Canada for example. Reintroducing the wooly mammoth to its original habitat may as well save other animals from future extinction.
I read once in a science magazine that they found more DNA in mummy bones than in mummy flesh.
So always when I hear about scientist trying to clone mammoths they use mammoth skin to find intact DNA but I suggest they should try out bones, I guess.
I can imagine it right now... Many years after mammoths are cloned, they start getting poached... reducing their population by ALOT, but thanks to conservation they survive.
I love it when scientists say "only 10,000 years ago". I know that in the history of that planet, that's suuuuuper short, but to a person, that's so hard to even imagine. Science is crazy guys.
And then there's astronomy, where people can say "only a few hundred million years" with a straight face
and then there are geologists who are like "we've got fossils that are 3.7 billion years old - nbd"
www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/08/the-worlds-oldest-fossils-are-37-billion-years-old/498056/
You're missing the point since those geologists are obviously not acting like it's a short time, quite the opposite. The keyword here was "only" :-)
Matthijs van Duin "It's young, about a hundred and thirty million years old."
Dr Meghan Gray, talking about M50
Not really related to the video but where do you get all your earrings they're BEAUTIFUL 😍
Never thought I'd get a good laugh from the phrase, "Late Miocene Megafauna."
Well played.
What about the "How"? While frozen mammoths had been found in the Arctic, scientists were not able to find a tissue sample suitable for cloning, as there was just too much damage to the cells.
Deexitnction involves genetic splicing, not cloning, but your point remains valud.
Glad you mentioned the band Mastodon
As a metal fan who's been watching since the wolf dissection video. I am far too pleased by that mastodon reference ^__^
Great! Thanks!
you might want to consider using polarized filter for the camera lenses, to avoid reflection from glasses. considering many people featured in your channel wears glasses.
We'd put them in places were mammoth steppe still exists like Wrangel Island and Certain areas of Alaska and Siberia(Best option being the "Pleistocene park" project)
Same place we put bison. Silly question to end with since we all are aware of Pleistocene Park.
When can I buy tickets to the double-bill of Late Miocene Mammal and the great barbershop quartet, Arthropod?
Hey Emily! Can you do something with Anna Goldman again soon!?
I can answer this one for you Emily, mastodons, unlike mammoths had some really messed up ideas on tax reform. While mammoths are well known for responsible spending policies, mastodons (as I'm sure you are aware) were all to pro "big government" and endorsed overspending and crippling taxes on businesses and the middle class.
Proud graduate of Cliff Claven University.
You wot mate?
And they had some pretty radical religious ideas as well.
I feel like John Green would be pleased with almost-puppy-sized mammoths.
Cool. I learned something today. And hey, you're quite quirky and kinda cute😺
Really hard questions, the first is the easiest one, but the second... what about the optimal condition of habitat and all the repercutions the habitat will get with the intrution of such a big-sized animal...
We really need to start putting elephants in small islands.
elmohead we already have dwarf elephant... about the size of a large Cow.
The Pleistocene is my favorite!!
I get so tired of answering the question of 'where to put them.' There is in FACT, a 'Pleistocene Park' in Siberia. It is the work of Sergei Zimov, and he is in the process of creating another just East of the Urals that will be more accessible for visitors. The whole POINT of returning mammoths to Siberia and the tundra is because they turn tundra and taiga forest into the 'mammoth steppe,' which is a FAR more productive environment for not just mammoth, but many other animals as well. The mammoth, as a 'keystone species' is what is required in order to restore the environment of the mammoth steppe, as Zimov has conclusively proven at Pleistocene Park with some 30 years worth of practical experiment. Look up 'Pleistocene Park,' and you will see for yourself 'where will we put them.'
Yeah, let's bring back Wooly Mammoths when there is global warming. Great idea!
It was climate change that drive mega fauna into extinction, nearly drove mankind extinct.
It's because Snuffleupagus
is lonely, huh?
Getting into when sea level rose and submerged Santa Rosae gets hairy. Had sea levels already submerged the landmass 60 kya? Did Columbian Mammoths swim there or were they trapped by a sudden meltwater pulse?
Amazing
Mammoths are in the same family as Elephants, unlike Mastodons.
0:02 is that a gorgonopsid skull?
*subscribes*
0:57
*fucking oversubscribes*
1:03
*breaks the fucking subscribe button with the head*
If you want to meet something like an alive mastodon (i.e. a dead mastodon) come visit Perry at the Wheaton College Science Center! It's like an hour from the field museum!
You know, some day science makes me really happy.
Are you saying we can have almost puppy size mammoths rooming around? If so, I’m in
love the hair
i know right.
crisp Emily
I love the new witty design
appreciate mastadons reference haha megafauna are metal af