Wednesday, May 09, 2012

When a mammoth isn't

The story seemed surprising: I'd heard years ago that Cretan mammoths were tiny. But it is alleged that the original story was based on flawed DNA analysis. The detailed study of teeth and fore"arms" confirms that they were mammoths after all. 3.7 feet high and 680 pounds isn't quite terrarium size, but that's about 1/30 the size of its northern brothers.

I remember the old article claiming that on one of the islands the remains were only about 5000 years old, and another (much older) article suggesting that the cyclops legends rose from elephant skulls (which look sort of like there's a big hole in front which might be for an eye).

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