What Was A Mammoth Doing At The Bottom Of The Sea?

Hannah Fry (0:01)

Welcome to The Rest Is Science, I'm Hannah Fry.

Michael Stevens (0:02)

And I'm Michael Stevens.

Hannah Fry (0:04)

I have just been on holiday for the summer, and while I was on holiday, I was of course thinking about you, Michael. And I saw something on a shelf in a shop, and I was like, I know who would like that. Michael Stevens of Vsauce fame.

SPEAKER_3 (0:16)

What is this?

Michael Stevens (0:17)

Can I hold it?

SPEAKER_3 (0:18)

Yes, you can. I want to guess.

Hannah Fry (0:19)

Are you gonna lick it?

Michael Stevens (0:21)

I will if you tell me to. Oh my gosh, it's more stony than I thought. I thought it was, is it like a coral?

Hannah Fry (0:30)

I've handed Michael something that looks sort of like a cross between a stone and a bit of wood.

Michael Stevens (0:38)

I guess it's like wood colored, but it's like a giant shape of a shark's tooth.

Hannah Fry (0:43)

Right, that's a nice way to put it.

Michael Stevens (0:45)

But it's not a shark's tooth.

Hannah Fry (0:46)

It's not a shark's tooth.

Michael Stevens (0:47)

How large is it? It's larger than my hand.

And it's not that heavy.

Hannah Fry (0:53)

No.

Michael Stevens (0:53)

I thought it was either gonna be much heavier or much less heavy.

Hannah Fry (0:57)

It's quite porous, isn't it?

Michael Stevens (0:58)

Yeah, it looks like it would be really porous, but it's denser than if it was wood.

Hannah Fry (1:03)

It's got quite organic shape to it.

Michael Stevens (1:04)

Is it bone?

Hannah Fry (1:05)

It is bone.

Michael Stevens (1:06)

Yeah, okay. It's bone, but it's not a tooth.

Hannah Fry (1:08)

It's not a tooth.

Michael Stevens (1:09)

It looks like it's like a hip bone because it's so smooth here, like a ball joint.

Hannah Fry (1:14)

One section of it is very smooth. I don't think it is a hip joint, but you're getting close.

Michael Stevens (1:19)

Okay, I'm gonna smell it. Mammalian?

Hannah Fry (1:22)

Mammalian.

Michael Stevens (1:22)

Yep, female. No, what if I could smell a bone until I just made that up as a joke?

Hannah Fry (1:29)

Amazing.

Michael Stevens (1:31)

Where did you go on this holiday?

Hannah Fry (1:34)

I was in France.

Michael Stevens (1:35)

Oh.

Hannah Fry (1:37)

So, yes. Jerry Lewis. I'll give you a bit more of that in a minute. Okay, let's think about this, right? It's an animal bone, a fossilized animal bone. Yep.

How big is the animal?

Michael Stevens (1:47)

The animal's big.

Hannah Fry (1:49)

Right. How big?

Michael Stevens (1:50)

Bigger than a human.

Hannah Fry (1:51)

Correct. How big?

Michael Stevens (1:52)

Three times as big as a human.

Hannah Fry (1:55)

I'd say bigger.

Michael Stevens (1:56)

Really?

Hannah Fry (1:56)

I'd say really big.

Michael Stevens (1:58)

Like whale big? Dinosaur big?

Hannah Fry (2:01)

Well, it depends which dinosaur we're talking about. It depends.

Michael Stevens (2:03)

There's some chicken-sized ones, I know.

Hannah Fry (2:06)

Mammal, though. Stay on mammal. Land mammal.

Michael Stevens (2:09)

A land mammal. So, elephant?

Hannah Fry (2:12)

You're closer.

Michael Stevens (2:13)

Rhinoceros.

Hannah Fry (2:14)

Bigger.

Michael Stevens (2:15)

Hippo?

Hannah Fry (2:15)

I mean, their name means big.

Michael Stevens (2:18)

Oh, a mammoth. Yes.

Hannah Fry (2:20)

It's a mammoth vertebrae.

Michael Stevens (2:21)

Whoa, a vertebrae.

Hannah Fry (2:23)

Isn't that cool?

Michael Stevens (2:24)

That's so cool.

Hannah Fry (2:26)

Isn't that cool?

Michael Stevens (2:28)

Not a mastodon, a mammoth. A mammoth. A mammoth.

Hannah Fry (2:32)

A mammoth. Now, the thing that I think is-

Michael Stevens (2:35)

Oh, shoot. There's a sticker on here. I know.

Hannah Fry (2:37)

I took it off because I didn't want you to.

Michael Stevens (2:39)

But if I look- why did I not look closely? Because I can tell that that's the back of a mammoth.

Oh, I would have looked like a genius if I noticed that. And I could have smelled it and been like, whoa, mammoth.

Hannah Fry (2:53)

Come your hair. Yeah, it's a mammoth vertebrae. How amazing is that?

Michael Stevens (2:58)

That's amazing.

Hannah Fry (2:59)

Isn't it? Okay, now here's the thing, right? Let me tell you where it came from. This was dredged from the bottom of the North Sea.

Michael Stevens (3:08)

But that's water.

Hannah Fry (3:10)

Why is there mammoth detritus at the bottom of the North Sea? This is what I really want to talk to you about. I want to talk to you about the secret lost land of Doggerland.

Michael Stevens (3:23)

Doggerland.