Mini Mammoth Once Roamed Crete 50
ananyo writes "Scientists can now add a 'dwarf mammoth' to the list of biological oxymorons that includes the jumbo shrimp and pygmy whale. Studies of fossils discovered last year on the island of Crete in the Mediterranean Sea reveal that an extinct species once thought to be a diminutive elephant was actually the smallest mammoth known to have existed — which, as an adult, stood no taller than a modern newborn elephant (abstract). The species is the most extreme example of insular dwarfism yet found in mammoths."
Re:you know you thought the same thing... (Score:5, Funny)
If only that had been mentioned in the summary!
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What I should have said is
is that like the pygmy whale?
!
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I believe these are known as Mimmoths [wikia.com].
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I thought this has been known for a while, and is the origin of the myth of the cyclops?
The fossil specimens aren't newly discovered; but there was apparently some phylogenetic wrangling about whether they were mammoths or elephants and there weren't enough specimens to get a good size estimate.
The present discovery is that the remains show distinctively mammoth characteristics and that there are enough of them to infer size.
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I thought this has been known for a while, and is the origin of the myth of the cyclops?
You're thinking of the one eyed fossils [nationalgeographic.com] of larger variety of pachyderm found there.
Similarly, I'm wondering if these fossils are the origin of the legends of the Minitaur. [staticflickr.com]
Jurassic Park (Score:4, Interesting)
Why couldn't they have recreated a herd of these guys instead of raptors?
Think 'Petting Zoo' instead of 'dying a horrible death'
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Why couldn't they have recreated a herd of these guys instead of raptors?
Think 'Petting Zoo' instead of 'dying a horrible death'
Worst movie ever.
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Put Kate Upton as the love interest?
Re:Jurassic Park (Score:5, Funny)
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Why couldn't they have recreated a herd of these guys instead of raptors? Think 'Petting Zoo' instead of 'dying a horrible death'
Well, it would make for a rather boring book and the movie would flop fairly miserably. LOL!
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In the book, Hammond used to have a tiny cat-sized elephant he liked to show off.
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Forget a zoo, I want one for my home. I'm putting it right next to my miniature pony for the cutest backyard pen ever!
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Because they didn't exist in the Jurassic [dinosaur] era? Besides, while there is (and has been for a long time) a great deal of fascination with the dinosaurs, for the megafauna of later eras... not so much.
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It's not Mini, it's my mammoth (Score:1)
Yum (Score:1)
So the Mimmoths are real! (Score:5, Funny)
Mimmoths are tiny verminous mammoths. Originally somebody’s experiment, they escaped and quickly populated most of Europe. They fill the same niche as mice and tend to live alongside them. They get into machinery and push things around with their tusks, wreaking havoc. [wikia.com]
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For those who may not be familiar with Girl Genius [girlgeniusonline.com]
...so was anyone else expecting the OP to be making a sexist joke about what the phrases "girl genius" and "mini mammoth" have in common?
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Yes Boo, I agree. This group could do with a swift kick in the morals.
In other news... (Score:1)
In other news, the date of the invention of the slider has just been pushed back 18,000 years.
Mm, a delicious treat! (Score:2)
Mimmoth on a stick [wikia.com], anyone?
Dan Aris
Prior Art (Score:3)
Check out Wilma Flintstone's vacuum cleaner.
Or perhaps Bedrock was located on Crete?
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It's a living.
How does it taste? (Score:2)
Because if it's as good as baby elephant, count me in!
Flinstone's White-Castle order scenario... (Score:1)
"I'll have a 6-pack of mini mammoth burgers"
"Would that be the 6-pack of mini mammoth-burgers or the mini-mammoth burgers?"
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6*9=54
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lol anti-intellectualism
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IMO even jumbo shrimp is debatable, shrimp has come to mean small/diminutive but that is derived from the name of the creature and doesn't mean small in and of itself*, where as mammoth actually meant large before it was applied to an animal.
* I'm actually guessing on that one, if I'm wrong I'm sure someone will correct me.
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2 mod points left. Do I point out that you're an idiot for confusing the adjective with the noun? Or do I mod you into oblivion?
Or do I mod you, and wait till tomorrow and comment if no one else has, potentially removing my downmod? Decisions...
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"some pedantic slashdotter is actually going to reply to this after finding some reference to something that could arguably be a "square triangle" just to prove me wrong. "
Well, this is Slashdot, we're here for all your pedantry needs. Unfortunately the best I can do for you is a three-sided figure with internal angles adding up to 360 degrees, just like a square, or an equilateral four-sided figure with internal angles adding up to 180 degrees, just like a triangle. (Spherical and hyperbolic special cases
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OK, I'll play pedant with you.
The word "mammoth" does not come from any word for "large". It comes from the name "earth horn" in Mansi (so says Wikipedia). The fact that we now use the word "mammoth" to mean "large" is by analogy with the animal. As in "that's one elephant-sized headache I've got today".
Mammoths aren't actually any larger than regular African Elephants (which admittedly is pretty darned large).
Myth? (Score:2)
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