The Mammoth Journey¹ is a multi-media project culminating in a major IMAX movie. The project - a 21st Century 'whodunnit' - is planned to initially be researched by thousands of people online, have regular updates broadcast on BBC World, and, for the resulting IMAX movie, to be the world's first 'publicly-researched' movie of its kind.

The Mammoth Journey - A 21st Century 'whodunnit'

The Mammoth Journey is essentially a multi-media 'criminal' investigation into the extinction of the mammoth which took place between ten and twenty thousand years ago. But why did the mammoth disappear? This is an unresolved and extraordinary story of the past, but one which has huge implications for mankind's future. Was it humankind that willfully murdered the mammoth, and not some other more palatable process of evolution? The mammoth was once our best friend - what went wrong?

One hundred and fifty-odd years ago, following the publication of Charles Darwin's Origin of Species, the investigation into the disappearance of the mammoth turned into the hunt for a serial killer. The case has never been brought to a conclusion. The Mammoth Journey project re-opens the case. The accused is us – homo sapiens, 'modern man' - and The Mammoth Journey seeks to find out once and for all what exactly killed the mammoth?

As with every 'case' of this kind there are (at least) two sides to every fact. Those who are convinced by the case for the prosecution draw heavily on a long and dispiriting list of similar crimes committed by mankind including the massacre of the buffalo in North America and the burning of today's rain forests, which has led directly to the loss of thousands of species. The defense, however, points the finger at climate change over the years, which was indirectly responsible for wiping the dinosaur off the face of the earth. It also draws on a seemingly infinite pool of modern man's excellent deeds to ask how can homo sapiens, who have brought so much to the earth in the way of culture and science, be seriously accused of such a heinous crime?

Up until recently both prosecution and the defense have used archaeologists as their expert investigators and print as their chosen media outlet. Now, another group of scientists, those with knowledge of DNA are joining in. And the media outlet has grown to include every aspect of the digital world.

h2g2 Research - an Essential Component of The Mammoth Journey

And it's here, at BBCi's h2g2 community site, where The Mammoth Journey investigation starts. Thousands of h2g2 Researchers are on hand to unearth evidence for both the prosecution and the defense. This evidence is planned to be presented to a television audience in 180 million homes throughout the world via a continuous series of short television reports broadcast on BBC World, produced by the Television Trust for the Environment (TVE) and sponsored by UNEP.

The bulk of evidence will emanate from a two-year long expedition, a voyage of discovery, which follows twenty thousand-year-old tracks of the mammoth as it migrated from Africa to North America. Homo sapiens, modern man, followed in the mammoth's wake. Indeed it was the mammoth, acting as a huge path clearer, that enabled man to leave Africa and conquer all four corners of Earth.

The conclusions reached during this extraordinary two-year expedition, will be undertaken by a variety of experts and aided by BBCi's h2g2 community. They are planned to be featured in a variety of multi-media specials including a major Mammoth Journey IMAX film, a television documentary series and a book.

The Future Starts Here... on h2g2

Every aspect of human life will be have to be uncovered if the case is to be properly heard. And if modern man is found guilty of wiping out the mammoth, the sentence cannot be life or capital punishment in order to prevent a repetition of this earth-shattering crime. Instead, the challenge for modern man is to change from being serial offenders, to serial defenders of earth as we know it.

And that's a process that cannot even begin without global, interactive dissemination of knowledge in all media - a process that starts right here on h2g2.