Saw this a few weeks ago on Destination Unknown with Josh Gates.
His story was men cleared a spot of forest and the sun beating on the spot started the melting. Just continues to grow.
He was there with a group Mastodon bone hunting.
They found a lot. Huge curved tusks and leg bones.
Some of the group were scientists looking to extract DNA from the bones. Their idea is to create an embryo with Mastodon DNA carried by an African elephant. They are hopeful on bringing the species back from extinction.
IMO a really really bad idea.
I didn’t realize they went extinct just a few thousand years ago.
Mastodon’s were only in the Americas. You must mean Wooly Mammoth. Very different. Mastodon’s lived in forests and munched tree leaves. Mammoths lived on treeless prairie and tundra and ate lots of grass.
One can see the difference in their teeth. Mammoth molars were flat for grinding silicate-rich grasses, while Mastodon molars had prominent peaks for breaking twigs and branches. In fact, Mastodon got its name from this. It literally means “Breast Tooth”.
Supposedly sled dogs in Siberia in the early twentieth century would eat the exposed meat of mammoths if it emerged from the snow and ice...
The isolated Mammoths on Wrangell Island survived until 4000 years ago.
It might be as few as 200 years since the last ones went down.