Aichi Mammoth: Words, words

[Mark Hallett <marksabercat@yahoo.com>]

Dear Dan, Since mammoths/mastodons are one of my
favorite groups of paleomammals, I was as excited as
everyone else to hear about the wonderful discovery of
the Aichi adult/subadult, but I wish the paleo
community at large would stop referring to finds like
this as "almost perfectly preserved". The word
"perfect" means that it should be exactly that, like a
newly dead specimem--no soft tissue dessication or
loss, all the hair present (which it didn't have). In
dinosaur paleontology, it's also common to use terms
like "nearly complete" to describe  material that
sometimes has about 15-20% of the skeleton missing
(Leonardo). I guess when you're used to seeing
fragmentary, incomplete stuff, something like this can
seem almost perfect or complete by comparison. Don't
get me wrong-- the finds are fabulous, but the loose
use of words or terms can be misleading. "Extremely
well preserved" would have been just fine to describe
the Aichi specimen. In a science dedicated to
accuracy, we should strive to be equally accurate in
our use of words. End of rant. --Mark Hallett,
skeletally about 70% complete, reasonably well
preserved for a Boomer.  

--- Danvarner@aol.com wrote:

> In a message dated 6/18/2005 2:42:11 PM Eastern 
> Standard Time, 
> MKIRKALDY@aol.com writes:
> << The almost perfectly  preserved head of a
> 10,000-year-old Siberian woolly  
> mammoth _  excavated from the Siberian tundra last
> June _ is currently on 
> display   
> at the Aichi Expo 2005 in central Japan. >>
> Interesting to see the mini-ears on an adult. Must
> have been very 
> characteristic  of the cold-adapted forms. See the
> ears on a baby:
> http://land.sfo.ru/eng/images/Animals/dimab.jpg
> 
> DV  
> 
> 



                
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