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21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Mammoths: Giants of the Ice Age, November 25, 2007
This review is from: Mammoths: Giants of the Ice Age, Revised Edition (Hardcover)
This beautifully produced coffee-table size (mammoth) book is full of pictures, maps, drawings and text detailing the origins, natural history, interaction with humans and eventual extinction of the Mammoth. It's aesthetically on par with something produced by National Geographic or the Smithsonian Institute. The actual content however exceeds that, it is a labor of love written by someone who obviously has a lifetime of experience and knowledge about mammoths. Nor has it been dumbed down for a general or younger audience - the science is clearly explained and accessible. What do we know? How do we know it?
I read it cover to cover in under 4 hours and with all the visual aids (pictures, maps, drawings, graphics) carefully tied into the text, it is a multimedia joy, I only wish more science books could be this effortless. We know more about the extinct Mammoth than some living species because there are so many well preserved frozen in the ground, and the close relation with living elephants tells us a lot about behavior.
This is a third edition (1994, 2000, 2007) and some of the information is extremely recent, for example the best preserved Mammoth ever found was in early 2007, and there is a picture included!
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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Strangely contradictory..., January 20, 2009
This review is from: Mammoths: Giants of the Ice Age, Revised Edition (Hardcover)
I have given this book four stars, primarily because it is so well illustrated, and that it DOES contain the main arguments currently extant regarding mammoth extinctions, and is well-written as far as it goes. That said, given that this is a revised (third) edition, I would expect that careful editing to bring in the new material would bring to light some glaring contradictions and sway the discussion one way or another. There is a lot of mention in passing of the semi-mythical 'mammoth steppe,' there is essentially no discussion at all of the unique inter-relationship of the mammoth to that particular environment. In other words, the mammoth largely CREATED and maintained the mammoth steppe, much like the African elephant maintains the savannahs of Africa. The experimental efforts of Dr. Zimov in Siberia over the past few years have made that quite clear. Once you have that fact firmly in mind, if you look at the contraction of the mammoth steppe in the post-glacial period, it is obvious that this is representing not a 'shrinking environment that will ultimately doom the mammoth,' but in fact clearly represents the decimation of the mammoth through hunting or other vectors, with a contracting environment resulting (with unsurprisingly, the last vestige of such environment ending up on Wrangel Island). As mammoths lived in lots of environments besides the 'mammoth steppe,' it is clear that the mammoth was not at all dependent on either the climate, or the food resources of the mammoth steppe, but that the steppe was in fact dependent upon the presence of the mammoth.
Carrying this discussion further, the most obvious vector for extinction is clearly hunting by humans. The book devotes a large portion to documenting extensive evidence of human hunting of mammoths, with over 70 sites across the Russian plain where not just individual houses, but entire communities were essentially built on the bones of mammoths, mammoth bones burned as fuel (and they have to be relatively fresh, or they won't burn), huge caches dug in the permafrost and filled with mammoth meat and bones, sites in the US where mammoths have been slaughtered, butchered and eaten, with stone points left in the vertebrae and between the ribs and charcoal pits scattered around them... Yet for some reason, this does not give 'sufficient' evidence for extensive hunting by humans?
Finally, while the book is very much limited to the various species of mammoth alone, for future editions it might be wise to include an extensive section on the various mastodons of the time as well. This is important for several reasons. First, during all of the Pleistocene (and earlier), the mastodons/gomphotheres formed a distinct proboscidean parallel form to the mammoths, exploiting environments not generally favored by them, and vice versa. While mammoths generally preferred more open environments for grazing (and knocking down trees to obtain it), the mastodons were primarily browzers that preferred forests. Thus, when the climate changes, favoring either expansion of grasslands, or expansion of forests, either the mammoths or the mastodons would benefit, and thus proboscideans of one type or another continue. An examination of the impact of modern African elephants of the forest species gives some good clues as to the impact of large proboscideans on the dense forest, and its plants and animals as well that could be easily transferred to the mastodons of North and South America (much of the jungle of West Africa is so dense that the interior would be essentially impenetrable if not for the existence of extensive 'game trails' created by forest elephants).
Further, the mastodon/gomphotheres lived not only in North America, but extensively in South America as well (where they form a primary item on the menu of early human sites), living in jungles, upland environments, as well as the pampas further South where mammoths never reached (already occupying and exploiting the environments there). In Asia, a similar situation occured with Stegodons and more modern elephants occupying the heavily forested South, while the mammoths stayed further North. Yet in all cases, all but modern elephants were wiped out in a matter of just a few thousand years, even though all forms had been in occupance for more than a million years previously! There IS only one 'enemy' here, and that is US!
If you are looking for a good overview of mammoths, their descent and a good overview of current knowledge in a distinctly non-technical manner, I can recommend this book highly. If you are looking for deeper insights, then I am afraid you will have to either look elsehwere, or wait for an updated edition. Check out 'Twilight of the Mammoths,' by Paul S. Martin for a good examination of environmental factors at the end of the Pleistocene for more information.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
THE Mammoth guide, October 31, 2009
This review is from: Mammoths: Giants of the Ice Age, Revised Edition (Hardcover)
I found Mammoths: Giants of the Ice Age to be a great overview of Mammoth natural history and paleontology. The book has a nice combination of photos and text. It is a visually appealing book with decent text. It could be used as a coffee-table book, or read straight through as a book. It is very comprehensive, including sections on the evolution of Mammoths, lifestyles, and history of excavations.
At times, I wasn't quite sure about the book's intended audience. The text seems a bit too advanced for kids, but too basic for readers familiar with Ice Age evolution. [[ASIN:0520261607 Mammoths: Giants of the Ice Age] seems best for lay readers or diehard Mammoth fans. In fact, I found the evolution and natural history sections great, but the other sections a bit dry. Fortunately, the book works pretty well if you skip around and read only those sections that interest you.
Some reviewers have compared this to Paul Martin's Twilight of the Mammoths:: Ice Age Extinctions and the Rewilding of America (Organisms and Environments). However, Martin's book focuses more on the Ice Age extinction rather than the natural history of Mammoths. If you want a focus on Mammoths, Mammoths: Giants of the Ice Age is your book.
This book is a revised version of an earlier book, and unlike many "revised" versions this book contains thorough revisions. It includes two full pages on Lyuba, the frozen baby Mammoth. I can't speak for every section of the book, but it does refer to recent discoveries.
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