Humans played a major role in the extinction of the woolly mammoth

The woolly mammoth survived in Siberia until the mid-Holocene. Credit: Mauricio Anton

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New research suggests that humans played a key role in the extinction of the woolly mammoth in Eurasia, thousands of years later than previously thought.

An international team of scientists, led by researchers from the University of Adelaide and the University of Copenhagen, has revealed a 20,000-year pathway to the extinction of the woolly mammoth.

Lead researcher Professor Damian Fordham of the University of Adelaide’s Institute of Ecology said: “Our research shows that humans have been a critical and chronic driver of the decline in woolly mammoths, with an important role in the timing and location of their extinction.”

“Using computer models, fossils and ancients

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DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, is a molecule composed of two long strands of nucleotides that coil around each other to form a double helix. It is the hereditary material in humans and almost all other organisms that carries genetic instructions for development, functioning, growth, and reproduction. Nearly every cell in a person’s body has the same DNA. Most DNA is located in the cell nucleus (where it is called nuclear DNA), but a small amount of DNA can also be found in the mitochondria (where it is called mitochondrial DNA or mtDNA).-“>DNA We have identified the mechanisms and threats that were integral to the initial decline and subsequent extinction of the woolly mammoth.”

Fingerprints from earlier changes in the distribution and demographics of woolly mammoths identified from ancient fossils and DNA suggest that humans accelerated the extinction of the woolly mammoth by as much as 4,000 years in some areas.

We know that humans have exploited woolly mammoths for their flesh, skin, bones and tusks. However, so far it has been difficult to decipher the exact role that climate warming and human hunting played in extinctions,” said Associate Professor Fordham.

The study also shows that woolly mammoths are likely to survive in the Arctic for thousands of years longer than previously thought, being found in small areas of habitat with favorable climatic conditions and low human densities.

Associate Professor Jeremy Austin of the Australian Center for Ancient DNA at the University of Adelaide said: “Our discovery of a long-term survival in Eurasia independently confirms recently published environmental DNA evidence indicating that woolly mammoths roamed Siberia 5,000 years ago. ”

Associate Professor David Nogis Bravo of the University of Copenhagen is a co-author of the study published in the journal. environmental science message.

“Our analysis strengthens and better solves the problem of human influence as a driver of population decline and collapse of megafauna ranges in Eurasia during the Late Pleistocene,” he said.

It also refutes the prevailing theory that climate change alone wiped out the woolly mammoth population and that humans were limited to hunters who provided it Bullets of mercy. “

“It appears that species extinctions are usually the result of complex interactions between threatened processes.”

The researchers emphasize that the path to the extinction of the long-haired and enduring mammoth began several thousand years before the last extinction.