The Earth's Shifting Crust by Charles Hapgood - wire of information

228 EARTH'S SHIFTING CRUST
decimated the mammals over three-fifths of the earth's land sur-
face (37^75)'
No one has been able to explain these widespread extinc-
tions. I shall attempt to explain them as consequences of the
last displacement of the crust, but, since the extinctions took
place both in North America and in Asia that is, both in the
area presumably moved southward and in the area presumably
moved northward, I shall concentrate first on Asia.
There we shall find no difficulty in producing evidence to
show that the climate of eastern Siberia grew colder as North
America grew warmer, just as the theory requires.
Among all the animals that became extinct in Asia, the
mammoth has been the most studied. This is because of its
size; because of the great range of its distribution, all the
way from the New Siberian Islands in the Arctic Ocean,
across Siberia and Europe, to North America; because pictures
of it drawn by primitive man have been found in the
caves of southern France and Spain; but most of all, perhaps,
because well-preserved bodies of mammoths have been found
frozen in the mud of Siberia and Alaska. Ivory from these
frozen remains has provided a supply for the ivory trade of
China and Central Europe since ancient times.
A study of the reports on the frozen mammoths reveals
some very remarkable facts. In the first place, they increase
in numbers the farther north one goes, and are most numer-
ous in the New Siberian Islands, which lie between the Arc-
tic coast of Siberia and the pole. Secondly, they are accom-
panied by many other kinds of animals. Thirdly, although
ivory is easily ruined by exposure to the weather, uncounted
thousands of pairs of tusks have been preserved in perfect
condition for the ivory trade. A fourth point is that the
bodies of many mammoths and a few other animals have
been preserved so perfectly (in the frozen ground) as to be
edible today. Finally, astonishing as it may seem, it is not
true that the mammoth was adapted to a very cold climate.
I shall first take up this question of the mammoth's alleged
adaptation to cold.