Natural History Wanderings

EarthSky reports

The last woolly mammoths on Earth lived out their lives in isolation on Wrangel Island, off the coast of Siberia. They’re thought to have survived until about 1650 B.C. (over a thousand years after the building of the Pyramids at Giza). Scientists long believed these creatures perished due to inbreeding. But a group of researchers at Stockholm University said on June 27, 2024, that a new analysis of DNA recovered from woolly mammoth remains calls that assumption into question. The research shows that even though the island’s woolly mammoth population had low levels of genetic diversity, that fact alone wasn’t enough to cause their demise. The new findings have deepened the mystery of what caused these iconic ice age creatures to go extinct.

Read more  Why did woolly mammoths go extinct?