Woolly Mammoths Wiped Out by Climate Change, Humans Not To Blame

Woolly mammoths were able to co-exist alongside human species before they were wiped out from the planet. The last known record of the hairy giant was already 4,000 years ago, but the reason behind their baffling disappearance was not confirmed for many years. In a recent study, a clue resurfaced from geological clues, and it might tell us what really happened to the said species of mammoths.

Woolly Mammoths and Their Co-Existence with Early Humans

The woolly mammoths roamed across Earth when the early humans existed. Similar to the giant mammals, the woolly mammoths lived peacefully and had a regular diet. When a mammoth dies, its carcass is utilized by humans to construct shelters and create essential materials for hunting. This was normal from the time due to the abundance of the animal's population and, of course, their bone quality. Form of the early humans even placed fragments of their skeletons in territorial caves 30,000 years ago. Even the oldest musical instrument discovered was made of the bones of the woolly mammoth.

The harmony between the woolly mammoths and the early humans was seemingly fine up until the animals just vanished for some unknown reason. Since the discovery of their extinction, the woolly mammoths' disappearance ignited a scientific debate in search of its cause. For many years, it was theorized that the early humans reached a peak of excessive hunting, and this led the giants to be wiped out from the early biodiversity.

In a new DNA study, it was confirmed that climate change caused the disappearance of the woolly mammoth and not by the hands of the human species. ScienceDaily reported that, based on the environmental data that the experts gathered, the intense melting of the icebergs made most of the animal's habitat too wet. The ecological condition in their territories were not fit for their supplemental needs, such as food sources. The scarcity of vegetation became s a serious problem for the woolly mammoths and eventually increased their death rate.

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Climate Change Made Woolly Mammoths Extinct

The reason behind the extinction of woolly mammoths was determined through a decade-long study led by the University of Cambridge's St. John College expert and University of Copenhagen's The Lundbeck Foundation GeoGenetics Centre director Eske Willerslev.

Environmental DNA from both plants and animals was analyzed through sequencing for the study's examination. The specimens included some of the mammal's body waste and skin cells, which were extracted from 20-year research conducted across the icy regions in the Arctic.

Willerslev said in an IFL Science report that the reason behind the mysterious disappearance of the woolly mammoths was a topic of debate by numerous experts in a span of 100 years. The most famous argument is that humans were responsible for their abrupt extinction that was not supposed to happen, considering that they already survived millions of years prior to their extinction. Willlerslev added that the early humans were not suspects, hence, it was the slow adaptive process of the woolly mammoths in response to the dramatic landscape transition of their habitat and the scarcity of food. The study was published in the journal Nature, titled "Late Quaternary dynamics of Arctic biota from ancient environmental genomics."