Were living wooly mammoths found in Nepal?


CLAIM: In the 1990s, mammoth-like elephants were discovered in Nepal that embarrassed experts who have declared mammoths to be extinct when they were in fact alive and well. (Ham, 2017, p.170) (Wieland, 1996)

RESPONSE: No experts were embarrassed - in fact, paleobiologist Adrian Lister undertook expeditions to study the supposed mammoths (one of which was named Raja Gaj, the largest Asian elephant ever documented) and reported that they were just ordinary Asian elephants whose mammoth-like features had been exaggerated by the press. (Lister & Blashford-Snell, 2000) DNA from the elephants' dung would further confirm that the oversized Asian elephants were just that - oversized Asian elephants. (Strickler, 2010)
"Popular reports that Raja Gaj resembles a mammoth are exaggerated: despite the large size, high cranium and sloping back of Raja Gaj, other elements of his morphology are quite unlike that of Mammuthus, for examples, the double, as opposed to single, cranial dome...Although not relics of a prehistoric era, the exceptionally large body size of the Nepalese population marks them out and has given them, by a process of relative growth, striking cranial morphology." (Lister & Blashford-Snell, 2000, p.36)
The only group still claiming that the Nepalese Asian elephants were mammoths or mammoth-like are young-Earth creationists. Interestingly, Ken Ham (2017, p.170) cites a tabloid for his source on the elephants' mammoth-like appearance, and Don Batten has confirmed that there have been no updates on mammoths in Nepal since the press reported on them in the 1990s. (Batten, 2022) Since the time that the Nepalese population was first studied,  features claimed to be mammoth-like by Wieland (1996) have been documented in other Asian elephants - which is to be expected given their immediate relationship with mammoths as their closest living relatives. (Naish, 2022)

CONCLUSION
In conclusion, no mammoth-like elephants were discovered in Nepal to the belittlement of old-Earth timelines. The supposed mammoths were modern Asian elephants that merely superficially resembled mammoths at first glance, with their odd features later confirmed in other clearly modern Asian elephants.

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING


Lister, A. M. & Blashford-Snell, J. (2000) Exceptional size and form of Asian elephants in western Nepal. Elephant, 2(4), 33-36.

Naish, D. (2022, August 24th) The Domes of Wisdom: an Asian Elephant Tale. Tetzoo.

Strickler, L. (2010, June 15th) Searching for the King Elephant. Phantoms and Monsters.

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