Woolly Mammoth Ate Own Dung to Survive (Went Extinct Anyways)

Posted by Alex in Animal on July 8, 2008 at 4:30 pm


Poor woolly mammoth! Twenty thousand years ago, when climate change made vegetations they eat ever scarcer, woolly mammoth had to resort to eating their own dung to stay alive (well, to stave off extinction anyhow):

Many of the plants in the mammoth’s lower intestine, which the team analysed using botanical identification and chemical techniques, were poorly digested, suggesting the animals struggled to obtain much nutrients from their poor vegetarian diet.

The scientists believe the large mammals ate their own dung to get a second chance of digesting the food, something which modern herbivores including elephants occasionally do in times when food is scarce.

Experts believe this could help to explain why the woolly mammoths were pushed into extinction at the end of the ice age by the changing climate. Recent research has suggested that the spread of forests in the warming climate left the mammoths nothing to eat.

Link – via Discoblog, Thanks Andrew M.!


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COMMENT

14 comments to "Woolly Mammoth Ate Own Dung to Survive (Went Extinct Anyways)"

  1. Tim Giachetti
    July 8th, 2008 at 5:04 pm

    So, that's where the phrase "eat shit and die" anyway comes from. Who'd a thunk it?

  2. Ali S.
    July 8th, 2008 at 5:12 pm

    Poor Mammoths. Eating your own poop doesn't save anyone.

  3. Brent
    July 8th, 2008 at 5:20 pm

    In space, astronauts will drink their own urine; sounds like progress!

  4. sigh
    July 8th, 2008 at 7:54 pm

    What a load of crap!

  5. CheeseDuck
    July 8th, 2008 at 8:38 pm

    Damn. Tim beat me to it.

  6. byotch
    July 8th, 2008 at 8:47 pm

    Anyway means "anyhow" or "in any case." "Anyways" is a strictly colloquial expression, as ungrammatical in written English as "anyhows" because adverbs cannot be plural. (University of Victoria)

  7. Hedgecore
    July 8th, 2008 at 10:41 pm

    Actually, apparently elephants (and I assume related species such as mammoths) eat their own and eachothers' dung to replace enzymes during the digestive process.

  8. fz
    July 9th, 2008 at 1:12 am

    Great post. Excellent combination of title and image. :P

  9. DOJ
    July 9th, 2008 at 3:57 am

    i heard that elephants eat dung to for the nitrates

  10. Tim Giachetti
    July 9th, 2008 at 5:31 am

    byotch?

    Being so intellectually superior in your way of correction, Do you recognize that wet stuff falling on your head isn't rain?
    It's piss from the rest of us who dislike douche bags.
    Have a nice day! :D

  11. TP
    July 9th, 2008 at 11:43 am

    Haha (Laugh University)

  12. Neatoramawontsendmeapassword
    July 9th, 2008 at 1:15 pm

    My dog used to eat her own poop. Maybe dog food isn't as nutritious as we're told it is.

  13. Stealth Fire
    July 9th, 2008 at 2:48 pm

    I'd rather resort to cannibalism than eat my own poo. I heard mammoth steak was rather tasty back then. ;)

  14. Ajan
    July 10th, 2008 at 2:47 pm

    hmm.. Well, Army soldiers aren't that far though.
    Soldiers who stay in the snow peaks wet their hands with their own urine so that they would be able to pull the damn trigger in time..


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