Mammoths may roam again after 27,000 years

Times Online (U.K.) ^ | 08/15/2006 | Mark Henderson

[Stultis]

a claim was made that the mammoth's small ears (relative to elephants) can ONLY be explained by being adapted to a cold climate

Now you're doing exactly what you (however ludicrously) accused me of doing. Vaquero never said cold adaptation was the "only" reason for small mammoth ears. What he said was that your author's tropical mammoths theory failed to account for this fact about mammoths.

Shedding heat isn't the "only" explanation for the large ears of African elephants either. They also use their large ears for signaling to other elephants. They also use their large ears, and the ability to extend them, to present a larger and more intimidating frontal appearance when threatened or challenged. But the fact that their ears, packed with thousands of blood vessels, are important as radiators to cool their blood and thereby lower their body temperature, is also evident.

The problem is -- given that shedding heat is an extremely pressing problem for a large animal like an elephant, and would be even more pressing for mammoths with their thick, woolly hair, their even larger (for most species) body size, and their smaller (even when adjusted for size) surface area to volume ratio -- why would their design forego the opportunity to shed heat with large ears, if they were indeed "tropical" animals. (AND why would they have a shape the provided a smaller surface area, and why would they have all that woolly hair, etc.)

But in the end it's just one fact among a whole devastating array which renders the "tropical mammoth" theory you posted silly and untenable.

[Sensei Ern]

What if it turns out to belong to a near-sighted neanderthal man?

[unlearner]

"There's no remotely imaginable reason you would have posted that comment if you in fact knew that snakes had no external ears and no ear openings at all."

I don't think even a small child can avoid the obvious fact that snakes have no ears.

I explained exactly what I meant and pointed out the context, yet you refuse to listen. You again reinforce the validity of my accusation:

You are a liar.

The most I could be accused of is sloppy writing, but I am not aiming to create literature, just to point out the high-minded, condescending, childish nonsense that masquerades as intellectualism.

[unlearner]

Do you think mammoths descended from large-eared elephants? If not then why would small ears be any kind of adaptation at all? If so, then why aren't their ears smaller?

[unlearner]

Then your behavior makes little sense. The webpage you made a point of linking, posting and defending didn't argue that mammoths lived in "mild" climates.

Now it becomes more clear. Maybe you are not as much a liar as just careless. I did not post it or any links. Go back and look.

I replied to an attack against it, but really am skeptical of the tropical aspect myself. I did however think the evidence supporting mammoths being flash frozen was agreed upon. I am not sure how else the well preserved specimen can be accounted for.

[unlearner]

Ok. He did not say only. What he did do was assert that the purpose of smaller ears demonstrated that the article is wrong. That implies, though I admit he did not use the words, that this falsifies the claims of the article. That is applying an entirely different standard to the creationist viewpoint. There are many things that evolutionary theory does not explain, and that is never considered falsification.

Other than that I agree in general with what you said, except for the misguided attribution to me of posting the article. That was apparently your first and biggest mistake.

[Stultis]

I did not post it or any links.

Ah ha. I did think that was you. Sorry.

I did however think the evidence supporting mammoths being flash frozen was agreed upon.

No. All the frozen mammoths appear to have died from causes other than freezing -- e.g. mired in mud, flood or land slumps -- and got buried deep enough that their bodies were entombed in the permafrost layer (which was not generally as close to the surface in the Pleistocene as it is today). See the webpage I linked earlier, and many other sources.

[unlearner]

It is a rare thing to hear someone say they are sorry. Think nothing of it. (Especially since I have made the exact same mistake more than once.)

Anyway, I will check out your link and try to keep an open mind. I have only given the subject the most cursory of attention.

[E.G.C.]

BTTT

[o_zarkman44]

Better start working on some good fencing.