Mammoths

Vivian, I originally read about this in Graham Hancock's Fingerprints of the Gods, Chapter 27, Alaska and Siberia: the sudden freeze. He lists several academic publications which you could consult, but draws heavily on The Path of the Pole by Charles Hapgood (Chapter 10, The Extinction of the Mammoths and Mastodons). Hapgood likewise refers to academic and other publications. The Wikipedia article does mention that undigested food was found in the stomachs of some individuals, suggesting that they froze up very rapidly. As carcasses have been found across Alaska and Siberia, I would assume the logical conclusion to be that hundreds of thousands of animals were killed by the sudden drop in temperature. Hapgood in fact states [p259]: "Ivory experts testify that if tusks are exposed to the weather they dry out, lose their animal matter and become useless for carving. According to Lydekker, about 20 000 pairs of tusks, in perfect condition, were exported for the ivory trade in the few decades preceding 1899, yet even now there is no end in sight. ... This means that hundreds of thousands of individuals, not merely eighty or so, must have been frozen immediately after death and remained frozen". Hope this helps. Riaan