Woolly Mammoth Skeletons Discovered Inside 15,000-Year-Old Human-Built Traps In Mexico
Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and HistoryThese colossal remains were discovered in pits that measured about 82 feet in diameter.
For a long time, historians believed that early humans who hunted prehistoric animals only went after massive woolly mammoths if they were already injured. The tactic made sense, given these behemoths grew up to 11 feet tall and weighed around six tons.
But one archaeological discovery has shown that ancient humans might have been even craftier than we thought. Earlier this year, archaeologists found man-made woolly mammoth traps in Tultepec, outside Mexico City, along iwth the bones of at least 14 mammoths.
Researchers from Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) are now excavating the 15,000-year-old traps, which were about 5 feet and 6 inches deep, and 82 feet in diameter. They believe early hunters may have used torches and branches to herd the animals into the traps.
In addition to the 800 woolly mammoth bones found inside the pits, researchers also found the remains of a horse and a camel. Experts involved in the dig revealed that at least five mammoth herds may have lived in the area.
Woolly mammoths were believed to have gone extinct 10,000 years ago following a global rise in temperature after the last Ice Age. But a recent study revealed that the very last population of woolly mammoths were still roaming the Earth as recently as 4,000 years ago on a remote island in the Arctic Ocean.
The study, which was published in the journal Quaternary Science Review, found that the last woolly mammoths died out partly due to their tainted water supply.
