A new genomic study shows that the quick, mysterious event that killed off the last woolly mammoths on Wrangel Island caused their extinction. This discovery questions the idea that inbreeding killed them off.
(Photo: Getty Images/ Natalia Kolesnikova)
New Information About the Mammoths on Wrangel Island
During the final Ice Age, woolly mammoths were famous animals. Until approximately 10,000 years ago, they resided in Europe, Asia, and North America. As the ice melted and people became more dangerous, these beautiful animals' homes got much more minor.
However, a small group of mammoths managed to stay alive on Wrangel Island, which is now in northern Russia, until about 4,000 years ago. For 6,000 years, after their friends on the mainland died out, this group lived on its own.
It was once thought that the Wrangel Island mammoths died out because they mixed with other mammoths too much. However, a new study in Cell has shown this idea is wrong.
The Centre for Palaeogenetics in Stockholm looked at DNA from the bones and tusks of 21 mammoths. Of these, 14 were from Wrangel Island, and seven were from the mainland. Their results show that the isolated community did have signs of inbreeding and low genetic diversity. Yet, the mutations were not too harmful and were being pushed out slowly over time.
Love Dalén, the study's lead author, said they could now reject the idea that the population was just too small and genetically doomed to die out. He said that a mysterious event likely wiped them out, and he said that mammoths probably would still be alive today if that event hadn't happened.
The Mystery Event
Some experts think that the sudden and unexpected death of the Wrangel Island mammoths may have been caused by a severe storm or an outbreak of disease. Marianne Dehasque, the study's lead author, said that their results showed that harmful mutations grew but did not wipe out the community. She noted that their research showed that the population quickly rose again to about 300 people within 20 generations and stayed stable until it finally died out.
Dalén said that what happened at the end is still a bit of a mystery, which suggests that it happened quickly. He said the team plans to do more research by looking at mammoth fossils from the last 300 years of the island's history. These discoveries could help us better understand the current biodiversity problem since the fate of the mammoths is similar to that of many species today facing extinction risks.
The study's results are beneficial for protection efforts today. Dehasque emphasized how important active and genetic monitoring is in conservation programs. He said modern conservation efforts should focus on increasing population size and ongoing genetic monitoring because genomic effects can last over 6,000 years.
By learning about what happened to these ancient giants, we can better understand how fragile our ecosystems are and how important it is to protect genetic variety so that similar mass extinctions don't happen again. The sudden death of the last woolly mammoths on Wrangel Island, caused by a mysterious event, shows how vulnerable groups that live alone are. This finding not only changes how we think about the history of mammoths but also shows how important it is to keep an eye on all genetic information in current conservation efforts.
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