What do you think?
Rate this book
Mammoths: Giants of the Ice Age
A dazzling visual record of one of Earth's most extraordinary species, this updated and revised edition of Mammoths: Giants of the Ice Age integrates exciting new research to piece together the story of mammoths, mastodons, and their relatives, icons of the Ice Age. Incorporating recent genetic work, new fossil finds, new extinction theories, and more, Mammoths is a captivating exploration of how these mighty creatures evolved, lived, and mysteriously disappeared. The book features a wealth of color illustrations that depict mammoths in their dramatic Ice Age habitats, scores of photographs of mammoth remains, and images of the art of prehistoric people who saw these animals in the flesh. Full of intriguing facts, boxed features, and clear graphics, Mammoths examines the findings―including intact frozen carcasses from Siberia and fossilized remains from South Dakota, California, England, France, and elsewhere―that have provided clues to the mammoths' geographic range, body structure, way of life, and interactions with early humans. It is an enthralling story of paleontological, archaeological, and geological exploration and of the fascinating investigations of biologists, anthropologists, and art historians worldwide.
Copub: Marshall Editions
Copub: Marshall Editions
192 pages, Hardcover
First published November 1, 1994
About the author
Adrian Lister
9 books2 followersLister is a palaeobiologist interested in patterns and processes of species-level evolution, adaptation and extinction. His research focuses mainly on Quaternary to recent large mammals, with special expertise in deer and elephants (including mammoths).
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
August 18, 2019
Mammoths, and the similar and closely related mastodons, were a big part of early human life. Early humans built shelters out of their bones, drew pictures of them on the walls of caves, and at least occasionally hunted them for food. Early humans thought about mammoths a lot. Then, after having survived for millions of years, through ice age and thaw and ice age and thaw, they vanished, from every continent on the earth where they once had lived. You and I missed seeing a live mammoth by only a few thousand years, which given that they lasted for millions of years is really bad luck. Or, perhaps, bad sportsmanship on the part of our ancestors.
Given that they went extinct quite recently, compared to for example the dinosaurs, there are still mammoth corpses coming to light from the ice of Siberia from time to time. You can actually see mammoth skin, mammoth hair, mammoth trunks. Scientists can sequence mammoth DNA, they can analyse the contents of mammoth stomachs to see what exactly they were eating (the ones that were about to die, anyway). When you see artists' conceptions of what dinosaurs looked like, there is a lot of guesswork, and even basic features such as "did they have feathers" have been subject to revision. This books, with its many drawings of mammoths of various kinds, is relying on a lot less guesswork and a lot more data. One of the great things about it is the copious, generous abundance of illustrations.
This is not to say, of course, that there aren't any mysteries, or at least topics of dispute. The biggest, is probably what exactly led to their extinction. To me, the answer is glaringly obvious: we did. Or, our ancestors. The big meat goes extinct on every continent we arrived on, not long after we arrived, from the end of the last Ice Age through to the settling of Madagascar probably less than 2000 years ago. In the more recent examples, there is ample historical evidence to prove that we drove the big animals to extinction through overhunting. There is no reason to believe our distant ancestors did otherwise. But, the idea that driving species to extinction is an age-old tradition of homo sapiens is disturbing to a lot of scientists, who are human after all and cannot 100% avoid letting their professional judgement be swayed by emotions. So, there is a chapter late in the book with a lot of special pleading, arguing that it is not an open and shut case. Whatever.
But, even in this chapter, and really throughout the entire book, we get a great overview of all that is known about these giants, how they lived, and what they lived on and among. It's not as good as getting to see the real thing, but it's as close as we're going to get (in our lifetime, anyway), and it's a wonderful gift to your imagination to picture what it must have been like to look out and see such a mountain of shaggy, ivory-tusked, lumbering life go by. No wonder they drew pictures on the walls of caves. Sitting there, looking at the images of these creatures, I am doing very nearly the same, and it is as enchanting for me as it was for my ancestors 20,000 years ago.
Given that they went extinct quite recently, compared to for example the dinosaurs, there are still mammoth corpses coming to light from the ice of Siberia from time to time. You can actually see mammoth skin, mammoth hair, mammoth trunks. Scientists can sequence mammoth DNA, they can analyse the contents of mammoth stomachs to see what exactly they were eating (the ones that were about to die, anyway). When you see artists' conceptions of what dinosaurs looked like, there is a lot of guesswork, and even basic features such as "did they have feathers" have been subject to revision. This books, with its many drawings of mammoths of various kinds, is relying on a lot less guesswork and a lot more data. One of the great things about it is the copious, generous abundance of illustrations.
This is not to say, of course, that there aren't any mysteries, or at least topics of dispute. The biggest, is probably what exactly led to their extinction. To me, the answer is glaringly obvious: we did. Or, our ancestors. The big meat goes extinct on every continent we arrived on, not long after we arrived, from the end of the last Ice Age through to the settling of Madagascar probably less than 2000 years ago. In the more recent examples, there is ample historical evidence to prove that we drove the big animals to extinction through overhunting. There is no reason to believe our distant ancestors did otherwise. But, the idea that driving species to extinction is an age-old tradition of homo sapiens is disturbing to a lot of scientists, who are human after all and cannot 100% avoid letting their professional judgement be swayed by emotions. So, there is a chapter late in the book with a lot of special pleading, arguing that it is not an open and shut case. Whatever.
But, even in this chapter, and really throughout the entire book, we get a great overview of all that is known about these giants, how they lived, and what they lived on and among. It's not as good as getting to see the real thing, but it's as close as we're going to get (in our lifetime, anyway), and it's a wonderful gift to your imagination to picture what it must have been like to look out and see such a mountain of shaggy, ivory-tusked, lumbering life go by. No wonder they drew pictures on the walls of caves. Sitting there, looking at the images of these creatures, I am doing very nearly the same, and it is as enchanting for me as it was for my ancestors 20,000 years ago.
February 9, 2018
a goldilocks book - not too heavy - not too light. Only 14,000 years ago (or less) these giants became extinct in Wisconsin, what a sight that must have been. When I was a kid I loved this type of book - Now we are dooming our last land giants, the elephant and rhino. worse, we are managing to threaten our own survival. Such superior animals we are. Hard to have much faith in a people who would choose a manifestly unfit imbecile to lead them -
September 9, 2014
Mammoths: Giants of the Ice Age by Adrian Lister and Paul Bahn (Frances Lincoln Ltd. 2007) (569.67) is a fantastic glimpse into the life and times of the mammoth during the Upper Paleolithic period. The author shares mind-boggling trivia. This is an excellent book on prehistoric times. My rating: 7.75/10, finished 9/9/13.
March 11, 2019
Lots of great info, learned a lot. Some of the info about early humans is outdated, but mammoth info seems right.
October 4, 2010
If you are like me and think that mammoths (and other megafauna) are fascinating, this is a great book for you. Gorgeous illustrations, and everyting from the history of the major mammoth finds to natural history and ecology notes.
Things I had not known: the hyrax (a small rock-dwelling mouse type mammal) is the closest living relative to the mammoth other than elephants. (Determined via very specific similarities in the ear bones and joints, and then proven with DNA comparisons.) Manatees and duogongs are also related, though a hair more distantly.
Things I had not known: the hyrax (a small rock-dwelling mouse type mammal) is the closest living relative to the mammoth other than elephants. (Determined via very specific similarities in the ear bones and joints, and then proven with DNA comparisons.) Manatees and duogongs are also related, though a hair more distantly.
December 30, 2007
This book is outdated now, howeveer the photos of cave are and especially prehistoric ivory carvings are beautiful. a fascinating book.
Read
July 2, 2009JEDINO-Lis
January 30, 2011
Great mommoth resource.
September 29, 2021
The parts of the book that cover actual science, such as frozen carcasses, are really good. However, these parts are also mixed in with a lot of evolutionary garbage.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews