io9: Global warming started 15,000 years ago with uncontrolled mammoth hunting

Ivriniel 07/02/10

I thought Mammoths ate grasses and Mastodons ate foliage from trees?
Comment: The first science expedition in the new United States, sponsored by President Thomas Jefferson (Thomas Nelson replaced him as governor of Virginia) was to a "mammoth" archaeology site near Newburgh, New York, discovered by an artist. He also asked explorers Lewis and Clark to look out for them in the West (last "most recent" sites on the Channel Islands off California) on their expedition to the Pacific Ocean. Many in Europe thought horses would all grow smaller in the New World, and Jefferson wanted them to consider that a myth and pointed to the evidence of these "mammoth" creatures having lived here. While doing survey near Harriman, NY, I read in the local paper that the local middle school wanted the site placed on the US National Register of Historic Places, it was not and arguably, should be. Note: placed on the National Register in October, 2009. A description and actual pdf document.
Ivriniel promoted this comment

Ivriniel 07/03/10

@JojiMyers: Interesting, but I don't see what it has to do with my original post...



George J Myers Jr 07/04/10

@Ivriniel: I just meant, near Lake Washington, at first, the "mammoth" was used as an adjective. Then the separation between "mammoth" and "mastodon" (which died out earlier) later became apparent. So as Wikipedia states in "Mastodon" ("nipple teeth") they browsed and Mammoths grazed (flat teeth). Less grazing of grasses and shoots of birches, more birches, leading to other environmental changes, the article states.
io9 link to “...uncontrolled mammoth hunting” with link to original Geophysical Research Letters