The woolly mammoths became extinct around 10,000 years ago due to a combination of climate change and human activities.

Climate change contributed to the extinction of woolly mammoths by reducing their habitats and making it difficult for them to adapt to new environments.

Human hunting also put pressure on woolly mammoth populations, particularly in areas where they were restricted to Arctic islands near extinction.

The relative contributions of climate change and human hunting to woolly mammoth extinction varied across different regions and time periods.

Climate change drove the reduction of vegetation, making survival difficult for woolly mammoths, and human hunting added to the pressure on the already vulnerable populations.

The changing vegetation affected the survival of woolly mammoths, as they were adapted to eat tough plant life in snowy climates, not tundra plants.

The large range of woolly mammoths may have hastened their extinction due to climate change, as shifting vegetation patterns left them vulnerable to predators.

Human hunters exploited the predictable movement patterns of woolly mammoths, adding pressure to their extinction.

The extinction of woolly mammoths had significant ecosystem impacts, including reduced nutrient distribution and altered seed dispersal patterns.

The study of woolly mammoth extinction provides valuable insights into the impacts of climate change and human activities on species survival, with implications for conservation efforts and the management of modern ecosystems.

The loss of genetic diversity and population decline were significant contributors to the extinction of woolly mammoths, and understanding these factors can inform modern biodiversity conservation programs.

The interaction between climate change and human activities drove the extinction of woolly mammoths, with climate change reducing their habitats and making them more vulnerable to human hunting and other pressures.

The speed of climate change was a key factor in the extinction of woolly mammoths, as they were unable to adapt quickly to radical landscape changes.

The human-mammoth relationship spanned 700-800 years in Siberia, where humans interacted with mammoths and accumulated their bones for ivory technology.

The accumulation of mammoth bones in Siberia was likely caused by human predation or scavenging, rather than natural processes.

The study of the woolly mammoths' extinction in Siberia found that climate change was the primary cause of their extinction, and that humans had no significant influence on their demise.

The extinction of woolly mammoths was likely caused by multiple factors, including climate change, human activities, and the reduction of vegetation.

The Arctic ecosystems, where woolly mammoths lived, are vulnerable to climate change, and the loss of these ecosystems had significant effects on the environment.

The current warming trend has delayed the onset of the next ice age by at least 100,000 years and has changed the planet's landscapes and species distribution.

The rate of extinction on Earth today is more than 100 times what it would have been without humans, highlighting the significant impact of human activity on the environment.

The conservation of genetic diversity is crucial for the survival of species, and the study of the woolly mammoth's extinction can inform conservation efforts for modern species.

The analysis of DNA from ancient plants and animals has provided valuable information on the impact of climate change on species survival and extinction.

The study of fossil records and paleontological data has provided valuable insights into the causes of megafauna extinction, including the woolly mammoths.

The Pleistocene epoch, which lasted from 2.5 million years ago to 12-10 thousand years ago, saw a significant climate shift that affected megafauna, including the woolly mammoths.

The woolly mammoths were unable to adapt to the rapid climate change that occurred during this period, leading to their extinction.

The loss of megafauna, including woolly mammoths, had a significant impact on the environment, leading to an increase in grassland fires and a change in vegetation patterns.

The extinction of megafauna, including woolly mammoths, was a global phenomenon, with many species disappearing due to climate change and human influence.

In Siberia, 70% of large mammal species disappeared after the Pleistocene epoch, due to climate change and human influence.

The study of the temporal and spatial patterns of climate change and human hunting that contributed to the extinction of woolly mammoths is crucial for understanding the complex interactions between human and environmental factors.

The transformation of habitats due to climate change and human influence occurred in Western Siberia, leading to the disappearance of 70% of large mammal species.

The Shannon index of species diversity in south of Western Siberia was almost 3 units during the Pleistocene period, indicating a high level of biodiversity.

The loss of biodiversity and the extinction of woolly mammoths had significant impacts on the ecosystem, with the current rising global temperature serving as a lesson from mammoth extinction.

The relationship between humans and mammoths existed for 700-800 years in Siberia, with humans interacting with mammoths for resources and potentially contributing to their extinction.

The mass accumulation of bones found in Russia was likely due to human predation or scavenging, highlighting the impact of human activities on mammoth populations.

The extinction of woolly mammoths was likely due to a combination of human predation and climate change, as evidenced by the presence of human-processed bones in Siberia.

Human activities, such as hunting and ignition of wildfires, increased significantly during the Ice Age transition, further pressuring the mammoth populations.

The comet fragment that impacted Earth 13,000 years ago may have also contributed to the extinction of woolly mammoths, although the exact impact is still debated.

The loss of large mammal species, including woolly mammoths, led to a 90% decrease in nutrient distribution, affecting ecosystems and landscapes.

The human-induced climate change caused dramatic ecosystem shifts, leading to the extinction of many large mammals, including the woolly mammoths.

The average temperatures in Southern California rose by 5.5 degrees Celsius before the extinction of the woolly mammoths, indicating a significant climate shift.

The 200-year drought that occurred 13,200 years ago led to ecosystem collapse, further pressuring the mammoth populations.

The human-caused climate change increased California wildfires by fivefold, which may have contributed to the extinction of the woolly mammoths.

The woolly mammoths' inability to adapt quickly to the changing landscape and climate made them vulnerable to extinction.

The isolated animal populations led to low genetic diversity, making the woolly mammoths more susceptible to extinction.

The melting of glaciers led to a humid environment and changed flora, making it difficult for the woolly mammoths to survive.

The destruction of habitats and the change in vegetation made it difficult for the woolly mammoths to find food and shelter, ultimately leading to their extinction.

The human activities, such as hunting and habitat destruction, played a crucial role in the extinction of the woolly mammoths, although the exact impact is still debated.

The climate change and human activities had a synergistic effect on the woolly mammoths' extinction, making it difficult to attribute the extinction to a single cause.

The woolly mammoths became extinct around 10,000 years ago due to a combination of climate change and human activities.

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Content: What we know as the Ice Age, the last long period during which global temperatures dropped dramatically and the polar ice expanded to cover much of the earth, is more properly called the Last Glacial Period (as there have been multiple ice ages).

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It started around 115,000 years ago and lasted for over 100,000 years. In that time many animal lineages rose and fell. In particular, it is known that many large mammal species went extinct during the transition from the Ice Age to the present interglacial period (from around 50,000 to 5,000 years ago).

These extinctions are thought to have occurred due to a combination of a quickly changing climate, changing vegetation and increases in human hunting. These megafauna included some truly huge and charismatic animals, from the iconic woolly mammoth to huge cave bears, to giant sloths standing nearly 12 feet tall! In this list you will find out about some extraordinary (now extinct) animals that lived during the age of ice and snow.

10 now-extinct animals from the Ice Age

1. Neanderthals

Our own species, Homo sapiens, emerged about 300,000 years ago, so persisted through the last ice age. We were not the only ancient humans around, however. Surviving the frigid temperatures along with us were our evolutionary cousins, the Neanderthals. This species of hominid emerged at a similar time to us but went extinct around 40,000 years ago – during the Ice Age.

Theories as to why they went extinct vary, from outcompetion from or diseases introduced by Homo sapiens to assimilation into the human gene pool. However, recent theories suggest that the primary driver might have been climate change. It is thought that despite behavioural and biological adaptations to the cold they simply struggled to survive the frigid conditions and lack of available food. How we survived and they didn’t is an interesting question.

2. Woolly mammoths (Mammuthus primigenius)

Probably the most well-known of all Ice Age animals is the woolly mammoth (in part thanks to the film character Manny!). Woolly mammoths lived from about 300,000 years ago up until about 10,000 years ago. The appearance of these elephant-sized animals is perhaps the best known of any prehistoric creature, due to the many frozen specimens that have been found, with soft tissue preserved.

With their thick coat of hair, large fat reserves, and specially adapted 'antifreeze' blood they were very well adapted to the cold. They were also very important to the survival of ancient humans throughout the Ice Age; their coats, meat and bones provided valuable sources of warmth, food and building materials for homo sapiens and Neanderthals alike.

3. Giant ground sloth (Megatherium americanum)

These beasts were very different to the sloths we know and love today! Standing at a whopping 3.7m when up on hind legs and weighing up to four tonnes (as opposed to the 5kg of a modern sloth), they were truly colossal.

With its ability to walk on its hind legs, it was in fact the largest bipedal mammal of all time. They lived in the woodlands and grasslands of South America, and fossils have been found dating back from around 400,000 years ago to 10,000 years ago. Despite its huge fearsome claws, it was actually a vegetarian, feeding on leaves and grasses.

4. Cave bears (Ursus spelaeus)

Slightly more modest in size, though still pretty massive, was the cave bear. Weighing in at between 400 and 1,000kg, the largest cave bears were comparable in size to modern-day polar bears. They could be found across Europe and Asia, including in the UK.

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We have a very good idea of what they looked like, as in 2020 a perfectly preserved specimen was found in the Russian Arctic, its remains revealed by melting permafrost. Even its teeth and nose were intact.

The specimen was dated to between 22,000 and 39,500 years old, living towards the end of the time of the cave bears, who are thought to have gone extinct 24,000 years ago. It is thought that hunting by humans, as well as competition with them over caves, may have contributed to their disappearance.

5. Dire wolf (Canis dirus)

That’s right, dire wolves are not just fictional pets from Game of Thrones, they were real animals. However, despite the name, and a lot of physical similarities, recent genetic analysis has revealed that they were not actually very closely related to grey wolves at all and were relatively closer to African jackals.

These canids were seemingly a common feature of the American Late Pleistocene landscape (approx. 250,000 to 13,000 years ago), roaming the grasslands, plains, and woods and preying on megafauna including giant ground sloths. There is almost an overabundance of fossil data on this species, with over 4,000 individuals excavated from California’s La Brea tar pits alone.

6. Sabre Tooth Cat (Smilodon genus)

The La Brea tar pits have also been responsible for giving us insights about another iconic Ice Age predator – the sabre tooth cat. More than 3,000 fossilised individuals have been pulled from the ooze, and their teeth in particular have been a valuable source of information about their diets and lifestyle.

Scientists have been able to examine the wear patterns on their iconic gnashers to determine that rather than bringing down very large prey like bison on the open plains, as was previously thought, they most likely fed primarily on smaller forest-dwelling animals like tapirs and deer. They were ambush predators similar to many modern-day big cats.

7. Irish elk (Megaloceros giganteus)

As you can probably guess from the scientific name, this species of deer was BIG. They stood at over 1.8m tall at shoulder height and had the largest antlers of any known deer, extinct or living. These colossal antlers must have been something to behold, spanning up to a whopping 3.5 metres.

Despite the name, this elk was not restricted to Ireland, but some of the most well-preserved fossil specimens have been found there. The most recent remains come from western Russia and have been dated to approximately 7,700 years ago – seemingly another victim of the megafaunal extinction event that occurred around the end of the Ice Age.

8. Giant Beaver (Castoroides genus)

Continuing the theme of larger versions of modern-day animals is the giant beaver, with an average length of about 1.8m. Its teeth were large to match, with some reaching up to 15cm, about the size of a hot dog.

There is no definitive evidence that they built dams as modern beavers do, but it is plausible that these immense incisors could have been used for woodcutting. What we do know is that they had smaller, smoother brains than modern-day beavers, which could indicate that they had less behavioural and social complexity.

9. Megalania (Varanus priscus)

So far this list has focused on mega-mammals, but what about other Ice Age species? Understandably it was hard for cold-blooded species like reptiles to survive frozen ice age temperatures across much of the globe, but in fact, not all of the world was icy, and some places remained habitable.

One of these places was Australia, where giant reptiles ruled. These included huge land-living crocodiles, massive snakes and Megalania – a truly monstrous relative of the Komodo dragon. This monitor lizard reached an estimated length of 7 metres and was a key land predator, at the very top of the food chain.

It has been suggested that the loss of its mega-reptile predators has left the Australian ecosystem out of kilter, allowing introduced mammals to reign unchecked.

10. Diprotodon (Diprotodon genus)

Another feature of the Australian Ice Age landscape was not a reptile, but a huge marsupial mammal – in fact, the largest marsupial to have ever lived. Diprotodon measured an estimated 4m head to tail tip and weighed as much as 3,500 kg, dwarfing the current largest marsupial, the red kangaroo, which checks in at a mere 2.7m and 90kg.

Their closest modern relatives are actually much smaller: wombats and koalas. It also has the distinction of being the only known seasonally migrating marsupial, trekking very far in search of food and watering holes.

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Main image: Artist's impression of a sabre tooth cat. © Daniel Eskridge/Getty

Authors

Leoma WilliamsAnimal behavior researcher and science writer

Leoma Williams is currently studying for a PhD at the University of Manchester, and writes periodically for both the website and print magazine

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How did humans contribute to the wooly mammoth extinction?

What environmental factors contributed to the wooly mammoth extinction?

from 300,000 years ago up until 10,000 years ago

When did the wooly mammoth mostly become extinct?

Climate change contributed to the extinction of woolly mammoths by reducing their habitats and making it difficult for them to adapt to new environments.

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Content: Woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius)

The most famous of the 10 mammoth species known to have existed is undoubtedly the woolly mammoth. Standing at around the same size as today’s African elephants, this magnificent animal roamed the northern hemisphere for roughly half a million years, becoming extinct by around 2000 BC.

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The reasons for the woolly mammoth’s demise are multifaceted. As the climate warmed at the end of the last Ice Age, and forests spread across the northern hemisphere, the grassland habitats in which the animal thrived were drastically reduced. This, combined with hunting pressures from humans, meant the woolly mammoth population ended up being restricted to just a couple of islands in the Arctic Ocean near Siberia and Alaska.

Some scientists hope to bring the woolly mammoth back from extinction, but with African and Asian elephant populations still facing a huge range of threats, many believe that our focus should be on preserving those animals instead.

Dodo (Raphus cucullatus)

For a large bird species that only became extinct relatively recently, we know surprisingly little about the dodo and its behaviours. In fact, there is just one near- complete dodo skeleton with bones from one bird, and there is only one specimen that contains soft tissue.

What we do know is that the dodo was restricted to Mauritius, an island in the Indian Ocean off the eastern coast of Madagascar and part of the Mascarene Archipelago, and was a relative to doves and pigeons. It’s thought that natural selection caused the animal to evolve into a flightless bird, with the species no longer needing to fly on an island with no predators.

However, when humans – and the animals they brought with them – first came to Mauritius in the 16th century, the dodo became extremely vulnerable. As well as being hunted for meat, it suffered from habitat loss and the predation of its eggs, resulting in its extinction by c1680.

Thylacine (Thylacinus cynocephalus)

Also known as the Tasmanian tiger or Tasmanian wolf, the thylacine was a carnivorous mammal originally found in Australia and New Guinea. Despite being similar in appearance to the domestic dog, it was actually a marsupial – a group of mammals that also includes kangaroos, koalas, wombats and opossums – and had a pouch.

Once widespread, the thylacine became extinct on the Australian mainland no less than 2,000 years ago, although the reasons for this are unknown. The species then became restricted to the island of Tasmania, off the south coast of Victoria, with between 2,000–4,000 individuals remaining when the British arrived in the early 19th century.

Eventually, the thylacine was persecuted as it was deemed a threat to livestock. The last known captive individual died from exposure at a zoo in Hobart in 1936 after being accidentally left out overnight. It’s thought that the last wild thylacines died in the 1960s, but that hasn’t stopped persistent rumours over the species’ continued survival.

Great auk (Pinguinus impennis)

Despite being similar in colouration and shape and bearing the genus name Pinguinus, the great auk wasn’t a relative of penguins, but was instead a member of the same family as puffins and guillemots.

Once a relatively common species in the North Atlantic, it bred on remote rocky islands such as Funk Island off the coast of Newfoundland, which was described by one 18th- century sailor as being “entirely covered with those fowls, so close that a man could not put his foot between them.”

However, exploration of the North Atlantic seas by European sailors spelled danger for the flightless seabird, with overharvesting of its eggs and adults for meat, feathers and body parts dramatically reducing the population. Attempts were made to protect the great auk, but that only increased its worth to collectors.

Sadly, the last breeding pair were killed and their single egg accidentally crushed by fishermen on Eldey Island, Iceland, on 3 July 1844.

Xerces butterfly (Glaucopsyche xerces)

Named after the Persian kings Xerxes I and Xerxes II (whose names are sometimes spelled ‘Xerces’ in France), this diminutive blue butterfly species lived among the coastal sand dunes of the San Francisco Peninsula, where its caterpillar preferred to feed on a single plant species.

However, urban development resulted in the loss of the plant, which could not survive in disturbed soil, and thus the loss of the Xerces blue in the 1940s – the first example of a butterfly becoming extinct due to human activity in North America.

Later, the Xerces Society, a non-profit conservation organisation established in 1971, was named in memory of the lost invertebrate.

For a while, there was uncertainty as to whether the Xerces blue was a distinct species or a subspecies of another blue butterfly. However, a scientific paper published in 2021 examined the DNA of a museum specimen collected in 1928 and proved that it was indeed a distinct species.

Passenger pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius)

The passenger pigeon was one of the most abundant pigeon species on the planet. Native to North America, it was called jahgowa by the Seneca Tribe, which translates to “big bread”, as it was a source of food by the Seneca and the rest of the Haudenosaunee people. Despite this, the hunting of the species was carefully regulated by rules set by each tribe.

However, after colonisation by the Europeans, hunting of the passenger pigeon increased and gradually became more industrial and commercialised. As the population declined, the species then became vulnerable to further pressures such as habitat loss and predation by other animals.

The last living passenger pigeon was a female named Martha, who was kept at Cincinnati Zoo in Ohio. She died on 1 September 1914 – one of the few times we have known the absolute date of a species’ extinction. Her death contributed to the creation of the US Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which requires permits to hunt some migratory bird species.

Golden toad (Incilius periglenes)

So-named for the brilliant yellow-orange colouration of the male (the female was black with yellow and red patterning), the golden toad has become a poster child for extinctions connected to the climate crisis.

Found in the Monteverde Cloud Forest of Costa Rica, the amphibian spent most of the year underground. It only emerged for a few days each April, with males fighting with each other around pools of rainwater in order to mate with females.

In 1987, roughly 1,500 golden toads were observed. However, the following year, only 10 toads were found, and in 1989, just one male. That one male was the last golden
toad ever seen, and the species was officially declared extinct in 2004.

While the exact cause of extinction is unknown, the climate crisis – combined with habitat loss and an infectious disease called chytridiomycosis – are all thought to have played a part.

Baiji (Lipotes vexillifer)

The baiji was a freshwater dolphin that lived in the Yangtze River in China, the third-longest river in the world. Although still listed as ‘Critically Endangered’ on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s Red List, having last been assessed in 2017, the species is considered extinct by conservationists. In fact, both the last confirmed sighting of a wild individual and the death of the last captive individual occurred in 2002.

The Yangtze River is also home to the Yangtze finless porpoise, the only freshwater porpoise in the world. Like the baiji, its existence is currently threatened by overfishing, shipping traffic and noise pollution.

However, the 2017 suspension of sand mining in Dongting Lake – a flood basin of the Yangtze in China’s Hunan province – has seen the finless porpoise return to areas that it had previously been avoiding.

Pinta Island giant tortoise (Chelonoidis nigra abingdonii or Chelonoidis abingdonii)

While there is debate about whether the giant tortoises of the Galápagos Islands are subspecies of the same species or a completely different species altogether, one thing is certain: Lonesome George was the last of his kind.

George was a Pinta Island tortoise, a species (or subspecies) that was already thought to have been extinct until he was discovered alone on the island that gave George and his former companions their collective name.

There were attempts to find other Pinta Island tortoises, and to mate him with closely related females, but to no avail. He died in 2012 of natural causes when he was around 100 years old.

Curiously, scientists believe it might be possible to bring back the Pinta Island tortoise, or at least a closely related version. Researchers have discovered hybrid tortoises with Pinta Island tortoise genes on nearby Isabela Island, with their Pinta Island ancestors having been moved there by whalers and pirates.

Megan Shersby is a naturalist, science writer and communicator. She was previously editorial and digital coordinator at BBC Wildlife Magazine

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This content first appeared in the November 2023 issue of BBC History Revealed

Authors

Megan ShersbyNaturalist, writer and content creator
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According to most recent research, what is the primary cause of wooly mammoth extinction?

How did climate change affect mammoth' habitat?

What are the causes of the wooly mammoth extinction?

What aspects of climate change contributed to the wooly mammoth extinction?

What environmental factors contributed to the wooly mammoth extinction?

Human hunting also put pressure on woolly mammoth populations, particularly in areas where they were restricted to Arctic islands near extinction.

How did humans contribute to the wooly mammoth extinction?

What are the causes of the wooly mammoth extinction?

Where were the last areas of wooly mammoth habitat?

islands in the Arctic Ocean near Siberia and Alaska

The relative contributions of climate change and human hunting to woolly mammoth extinction varied across different regions and time periods.

Title:

Content: Skip to main content

From time crystals to cannibal toads, 2021 was a wild year for science

2021 was full of innovation and discovery in the world of science, covering everything from biological discovery and archeology to not one but two burgeoning space races.

We learned some fascinating things about ancient animal species, including some surprising facts about dinosaurs, and we learned a lot about humanity as well.

Quantum computers jumped from the realm of practical technology to potentially physics defying breakthroughs while some of our most cherished scientific achievements started to show their age.

We broke the record for the coldest temperatures ever achieved and might have caught sight of our first exoplanet in another galaxy.

There was a lot going on this year, but we pulled out the major stories throughout the year that helped define the year in science for 2021.

January

We're not going to lie, January was tough, as several studies and reports showed just how quickly the climate crisis was advancing. One study showed that the triple-threat of climate change, biodiversity loss, and overpopulation could spell calamity for humanity by the end of this century.

Following up on that study, another showed that Earth is now hotter than its been in at least 120,000 years, seeming to settle a major conflict over climate models in favor of "Yeah, it really is that bad."

We also got some stunning photography of Mars' Valles Marineris, the single largest canyon in the solar system. The gash cuts across one side of Mars for thousands of miles and about 10 times longer and three times deeper than the Grand Canyon in Arizona.

February

Ok, February was Mars' month to really shine.

First, the United Arab Emirates also sent its first probe to Mars on February 9, a major milestone for a country that only launched its first satellite a decade ago.

Not to be outdone, China's first interplanetary spacecraft, the Tianwen-1 orbiter, arrived in orbit around the Red Planet the next day on February 10, beaming back spectacular video in the process.

The big show came a little over a week later when the NASA Perseverance rover successfully touched down on Mars in an ancient lake bed called Jezero Crater after "seven minutes of terror" as the rover's landing sequence played out via automated programming.

It went off flawlessly and Perseverance has been doing science on Mars ever since. Even better, Perseverance was able to send back the first audio ever recorded on another planet: a recording of the Martian wind blowing past the rover.

A little closer to home, NASA also chose SpaceX's Falcon Heavy to carry the first pieces of NASA's Gateway Station to the Moon's orbit, with an expected launch date sometime in 2024. NASA picking SpaceX for stuff is going to be a big theme for 2021, in case you're wondering.

March

Hubble had some trouble in March, suffering a software glitch that knocked it out of commission for several days. While in itself not terrible, it would end up foreshadowing more serious problems later in the year.

We also got a new digital recreation of the complete Antikythera Mechanism, a roughly 2,000-year-old device discovered in an ancient Roman shipwreck in 1900 and considered the world's first mechanical computer.

The mysterious device is missing many key parts and is covered in two millennia of corrosion and sediment buildup, so figuring out how the device actually worked is one of archeology's greatest ongoing challenges.

We do know some things about it though, like the fact that it charted the positions of the planets, predicted lunar eclipses, and even counted down to the next Olympic games in Athens.

April

April was a historic month on Mars, as the Ingenuity helicopter drone made its first test flight after arriving on the planet with the Perseverance rover back in February.

It was the first time a human aircraft ever flew on another world, making it something of a Wright Brothers moment for NASA engineers.

"I don't think I can ever stop watching it over and over again," Ingenuity project manager MiMi Aung said afterward.

Back here on Earth, just a really long time ago, we learned something remarkable about every kid's favorite dinosaur: Tyrannosaurus Rex.

Looking at new simulations of how a T. rex's tail would have moved given what we know of its physiology, it turns out its typical walking speed was a sluggish 3 mph (5km/h)

Speed doesn't scale well with weight, so this shouldn't be surprising, but given how many other huge dinosaurs were around at the time, T. rex hunting prey might have been history's slowest chase scene. Considering that T. rex possibly numbered in the millions right up until 66 million years ago, it seems to have gotten along just fine. Until the asteroid hit anyway.

Finally, just before the end of the month, China put the first section of the Tianhe space station into orbit. Called the Tianhe core module, the module provides life support and living space for up to three crew members, and includes the necessary guidance and navigation controls for the station as more modules are added in the months ahead.

May

Following up on NASA's Perseverance, China landed its first rover, Zhurong, on Mars in May.

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The Mars landing is a historic feat for China, making it only the second country to put a rover on another planet, after the United States. This is a further sign of the brewing space race between the two countries that is expected to accelerate in the years ahead.

Zhurong is equipped with panoramic and multispectral cameras and equipment to analyze rock compositions, as well as ground penetrating radar to explore subsurface features of the Utopia Planitia region of the planet.

Looking out a little bit past Mars, scientists were able to watch and document a star being eaten by a black hole in a process known as spaghettification

This is where the tidal forces of the black holes gravity on the side of the star nearest it is so much greater than the gravity on the star's far side that the difference in gravity literally tears the star apart, turning it into a stream of material that eventually forms an accretion disk around the black hole as it slowly consumes the material.

We knew that this process happened, but this was the first time astronomers got to watch it happen to an actual star.

Finally, there was news in May that scientists have determined that the longest a human can ever live, biologically, is about 150 years. After that point, the body is simply no longer able to repair itself. So, it turns out humans do have a definite shelf life.

June

June saw some disturbing news on the climate front, as a satellite photos taken from 2017 to 2020 showed Antarctica's Pine Island Glacier – one of the continent's most endangered – dramatically losing up to 20% of its supporting ice shelf in just four years.

The consequences of this kind of rapid ice loss will be dire, as melting ice from collapsing glaciers and ice sheets contribute to catastrophic sea level rise.

While we're talking about Antarctica, the southern most continent on Earth now officially has its own ocean, the Southern Ocean

While the idea of the Southern Ocean isn't new, it wasn't officially listed alongside the four other recognized oceans: the Altantic, the Pacific, the Indian, and the Arctic.

June also saw more evidence emerge that a comet fragment impacted Earth 13,000 years ago and caused the Younger Dryas period, a 1,500 year stretch starting around 11,000 BCE where Earth's climate suddenly snapped back into ice age conditions just as the last ice age was coming to an end.

The comet fragment theory – or the Clovis comet impact hypothesis, as it is known – has been a controversial one over the years.

New research into a global layer of platinum and other deposits in the geological record right at the start of the Younger Dryas though are pointing more and more to an impact, providing crucial support for the theory.

More research needs to be done, but it's looking increasingly like humanity survived an apocalyptic impact event 13,000 years ago, and the subsequent impact winter might have forced hunter-gatherer societies to work the Earth to try and grow food as it became more scarce – essentially forcing human tribes to form civilization as we know it in response to the crisis.

July

There was a lot that happened in July, but arguably the most important story of the month was the Billionaire Space Race kicking into high gear.

Both Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos launched themselves into someone's definition of space, and we'll leave it to Bezos and Branson to pull out the measuring tape on that one and argue over where "outer space" actually begins.

Throw in half a year of Elon Musk's SpaceX launching a crewed mission to the International Space Station, several tests of SpaceX's Starship (many of which met a fiery end on a landing platform), and trash talk on Twitter, and one of the most obnoxious spectacles of the past decade spilled out into the open in July.

The saddest part about it all is that the future of space exploration is likely in their hands, and especially in the case of SpaceX, they are actually delivering results. So we're likely destined to have to put up with this for the foreseeable future as these companies become more integrated into our official space agencies in the US, Europe, and even in Russia.

Moving on from all that for now, there was also an exciting little tidbit of astronomy this August, with the discovery of a moon-forming disk around an exoplanet in a solar system in the earliest stages of its formation.

It was the first time we've ever seen anything like this, and it's a huge discovery for scientists researching solar system formation to actually see this process playing out.

As for the disk, it is surrounding an exoplanet that is about the size of Jupiter, and the disk itself is gargantuan, estimated to be about 500 times larger than the rings of Saturn, or comparable to the distance between the Earth and the Sun.

August

August was a huge month for quantum computing fans as Google announced that they had creating physics-breaking "time crystals", a quantum phenomenon that violates the principle of entropy laid out by the second law of thermodynamics.

The results have to be confirmed, and that isn't a simple task, obviously. No one just has a spare quantum computer lying around that researchers can use.

Still, if Google's Sycamore quantum computer has managed to create time crystals, all we can say is it's a big friggin' deal, and the implications of it still aren't clear even to physicists who do this for a living.

August also saw the announcement that researchers had identified the source of the dinosaur-killing asteroid that hit the Yucatan Peninsula in the Gulf of Mexico 66 million years ago.

Examining samples from the Chicxulub crater, the asteroid was determined to be a carbonaceous chondrite, an ancient class of asteroid that originates on the darkest, outer edges of the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

It's suspected that Jupiter's gravitational influence nudged the space rock into the inner solar system, and simulation models show that this happens more often than we originally suspected, with impacts with Earth occurring about once every 250 million years. So we've got time, yet.

While not the most ground-breaking event in science this year, it's still really cool that researchers spotted a metal-laden white dwarf rocketing against the rotation of the Milky Way at nearly 2 million mph (about 3.2 million km/h) like it was shot out of a cosmic cannon.

And in a lot of ways, it probably was. Astronomers suspect that the white dwarf was the companion to a star that went supernova, and the blast was so violent that the white dwarf remnant shooting through the galaxy has enough velocity to escape the Milky Way entirely and fly off into intergalactic space.

Oh, and if you thought you were done with the Jeff Bezos-Elon Musk fight over who gets dibs on outer space, you'd be wrong. By the middle of August, Jeff Bezos was suing NASA over its awarding SpaceX the Artemis lunar lander program, even though Bezos's Blue Origin bid was almost twice what SpaceX's bid was.

While this isn't really a fight between Musk and Bezos as much as it is a fight between Musk's SpaceX and the legacy military-industrial complex mainstays like Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and Northrup Grumman, Bezos's lawsuit did manage to delay the Artemis mission and push it back to 2025 at the earliest.

September

Poisonous cane toads that even notoriously prickly Australian wildlife won't mess with have nothing to fear but themselves – literally.

The invasive cane toad, first introduced into Australia in the 1930s from South America as a pest control measure has spiraled out of control and now 200 million cane toads in Australia have made cannibalizing the young a key part of their development out of the tadpole stage, according to a recent study.

This in turn has made the cane toad hatchlings evolve to mature faster so that they can defend themselves against their older counterparts. This in turn is making the cane toads evolve to be even more ferocious in hunting down hatchlings to eat in a twisted evolutionary arms race.

"These toads have gotten to the point where their own worst enemy is themselves," the study author said.

We also saw new research in September that quantified the damage that a particularly strong solar flare could cause, and it's not good.

A powerful solar flare wouldn't harm any of us on the ground, not directly anyway. Earth's magnetic field protects us from any danger from the charged particles flying off the Sun during a solar flare event. But electronics? Yeah, they're toast.

The research revealed that there aren't enough redundancies in internet transmission capacity, particularly with undersea cables, which could be fried during a solar flare event and which could take months to replace.

Meanwhile, North America could be cut off from the rest of the world's internet until the cables were replaced, causing $7 billion dollars of economic damage a day while the internet remains out of commission.

In happier news, SpaceX's Inspiration4 mission, the first privately chartered space flight to orbit the Earth, helped raise tens of millions of dollars for St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital, which treats pediatric cancers and other diseases.

Inspiration4 also gave us something new from SpaceX: a cupola on the Dragon Crew capsule. This domed window gave the crew members stunning views of the Earth as they orbited, making everyone else on Earth jealous as hell.

See more

October

We had a couple of choice bits in October as well. First, there was news that researchers in Germany broke the record for the coldest temperature ever achieved in a lab.

Using a special state of matter known as a Bose-Einstein condensate, made from 100,000 rubidium atoms held in place with magnetic fields and cooled to about 2 billionths of a degree Celsius, the researchers dropped the condensate from a 120-foot tall freefall tower while flipping the magnetic field off and on rapidly.

This dropped the temperature of the atoms to just 38 picokelvins, or about 38 trillions of a degree Kelvin above absolute zero, for roughly two seconds.

Speaking of cold, a comprehensive study of wooly mammoth fossils and other environmental samples collected over 20 years claims to prove that the mammoths weren't hunted to extinction, but rather died off because of climate change.

Coming out of the last ice age, mammoths were adapted to finding and eating a tough kind of plant life that can survive in snowy climates, but when the snows melted, those plants got pushed out by the marshy plant life of a tundra, which the mammoths apparently couldn't eat, or which at least didn't provide the proper nutrients.

Finally, we got word toward the end of October that we might have spotted our first exoplanet in another galaxy. Unfortunately, it appears to be orbiting far enough away from a black hole or neutron star that we won't be able to confirm it using the transit method for about 70 years.

November

In November, we learned that it's no use hiding from you cat, they know where you are at all times thanks to some special process that can link sound to location like pinning audio cues on a 2D mental map.

Even when they're not looking, they're still watching you, apparently.

We also got new evidence of a unique kind of fast radio burst, one whose source appears to be repeatedly exploding, as many as 1,652 times in a single 60 hour period of observation.

The researchers who spotted it are at a loss to describe what could be causing such an unusual, and rapid, pattern, but they have some guesses.

We saw more space debris make the news in November as well, as several incidents involving space debris threatening the International Space Station made the news, including an anti-satellite weapons test conducted by Russia that sent shrapnel from the satellite into the path of the ISS, forcing astronauts to enter their Dragon and Soyuz capsules as an emergency precaution.

December

Closing out the year, we had a new EP drop from Mathematician and electronic music artist Dr. Valery Vermeulen that used data from black hole collisions and black hole simulations to create sometimes-haunting soundscapes.

We interviewed Vermeulen and explored the overlap between art and science, how we can use unorthodox tools to make complex science more accessible to the masses, and why that ultimately matters.

On the opposite end of the spectrum from black holes, the Parker Solar Probe finally touched the Sun's outer layer this year.

The announcement in December was met with a lot of understandable fanfare and wonder, but the accomplishment will also better help us understand solar winds and other space weather produced by the Sun.

And we obviously can't close out the year without talking about the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) launch. The successor to Hubble, JWST will be the next-generation observation platform for astronomers for the next five to ten years, and probably longer.

The incredibly delicate deployment is still underway as you read this, but we're getting closer to having an entirely new eye on the universe that will let us see further back in time to the earliest galaxies and stars to ever have formed. Exciting stuff, assuming everything goes right.

Fingers crossed, otherwise that'll be a crappy way to kick off the year in science for 2022.

John (He / Him / His) is TechRadar's Computing Staff Writer and is also a programmer, gamer, activist, and Brooklyn College alum currently living in Brooklyn, NY. Named by the CTA as a CES 2020 Media Trailblazer for his science and technology reporting, John specializes in all areas of computer science, including industry news, hardware reviews, PC gaming, as well as general science writing and the social impact of the tech industry.

You can find him online on Twitter at @thisdotjohn

Currently playing: Back 4 Blood, Metroid Dread, EVE Online

According to most recent research, what cause of wooly mammoth extinction is not as important as previously believed?

How did humans contribute to the wooly mammoth extinction?

Climate change drove the reduction of vegetation, making survival difficult for woolly mammoths, and human hunting added to the pressure on the already vulnerable populations.

Title:

Content: Partners news
The cause of the extinction of mammoths
Scientists have found that mammoths died out due to climate change
Photo: Stanislav Krasilnikov / TASS
An international team of researchers found that the cause of the extinction of mammoths in Siberia was primarily a sharp climate change, not human activity.
The article is published in the journal Nature.
Woolly mammoths became extinct only about four thousand years ago.
They were not only the main source of meat of ancient people – the latter made from their bones the basis for dwellings, from their tusks made harpoons and even musical instruments.
Therefore, there is a widespread theory that the main cause of extinction was humans.
Researchers from the Institute of Earth Sciences of St. Petersburg State University together with colleagues from the UK, Denmark, China, Norway and the United States decided to restore the appearance of the tundrosteppe, which was inhabited by mammoths.
To do this, they using the shotgun method — obtaining from a random massive sample of cloned fragments of the original sequence — analyzed the DNA of ancient plants and animals collected from 535 different places in the Arctic, where the mammoth lived, over 20 years.
They also analyzed the DNA of more than 1,500 modern plants and animals.
Researchers were able to map the distribution of populations of mammoths and other representatives of the megafauna of the tundrosteppe.
They saw that over time their populations and genetic diversity became smaller and smaller — making survival increasingly difficult.
With the end of the Pleistocene about 12 thousand years ago and the accompanying retreat of glaciers and the formation of rivers, lakes and marshes, vegetation has decreased in volume, and it has become insufficient to maintain the previous level of populations.
As the climate warms, trees and swamp plants have taken the place of former mammoth pastures.
“We have shown that climate change, in particular rainfall, has directly led to changes in vegetation.
According to our models, people did not have any influence on them [mammoths], ” said the first author of the work, a researcher at the University of Cambridge Yuchen Wang.
However, the extinction of mammoths was influenced not only by the warming of the climate itself.
“His speed was the last nail in the lid of the coffin – they (megafauna tundrosteppe – approx.
“Tape.ru ”) could not adapt quickly enough, when the landscape radically changed and food was not enough, ” said the head of the scientific group, Professor of Copenhagen and Cambridge universities Eske Willerslev.
Only what is important to you is in the “Tape of the Day ” in Telegram.
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According to most recent research, what cause of wooly mammoth extinction is not as important as previously believed?

According to most recent research, what is the primary cause of wooly mammoth extinction?

How did climate change affect mammoth' habitat?

shrank grassland
restricted habitat
food sources disappearing

How did humans contribute to the wooly mammoth extinction?

What are the causes of the wooly mammoth extinction?

What aspects of climate change contributed to the wooly mammoth extinction?

What environmental factors contributed to the wooly mammoth extinction?

The changing vegetation affected the survival of woolly mammoths, as they were adapted to eat tough plant life in snowy climates, not tundra plants.

According to most recent research, what is the primary cause of wooly mammoth extinction?

How did climate change affect mammoth' habitat?

restricted habitat
food sources disappearing

What are the causes of the wooly mammoth extinction?

What environmental factors contributed to the wooly mammoth extinction?

The large range of woolly mammoths may have hastened their extinction due to climate change, as shifting vegetation patterns left them vulnerable to predators.

Title:

Content: Skip to main content
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During the last ice age, woolly mammoths were among the largest creatures to walk the North American landscape. Now, a team of American and Canadian researchers has discovered that the elephantine beasts took the “walking” part of their job description quite seriously.

Based on an analysis of a single tusk from an adult male woolly mammoth found in Alaska, the scientists determined that the animal journeyed about 70,000 kilometres over the course of its life – a trip equivalent to nearly twice around the world.

“The range is staggering. ... He definitely moved across a huge, huge area,” said Clement Bataille, an assistant professor of earth and environmental science at the University of Ottawa and a co-author on the study.

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Dr. Bataille said the high degree of mobility may have been part of the mammoth’s mating strategy. In comparison, African elephants can travel a lot, too, he added, and males typically depart from the groups they are born into once they reach sexual maturity.

However, Dr. Bataille and his colleagues note that the requirement for such a large range to roam in may have ultimately hastened the extinction of the species once the climate warmed and the shaggy grazers were hemmed in by shifting vegetation patterns. That, in turn, would have left them more vulnerable to predators, including human hunters.

The study began in 2018 when Matthew Wooller, director of the Stable Isotope Facility at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, invited Dr. Bataille and other colleagues to join an effort to extract information from a mammoth fossil discovered in 2010 on the north side of the Brooks mountain range, a few hundred kilometres from the Arctic Ocean. The fossil dates back 17,000 years, to a time when much of Alaska was a glacier-free grass plain connected to Siberia by the Bering land bridge.

The researchers nicknamed their specimen “Kik,” after a river system near the place where it was found.

Using the mammoth’s sliced-open tusk, they obtained detailed measurements of oxygen and strontium isotopes that were locked in the ivory material. The mammoth acquired the isotopes, which vary according to local geology, through the vegetation and water it consumed over the course of its life. As the tusks grew at the rate of about five to six centimetres each year, they recorded changes in isotope levels, which reveal when and how often the animal moved between locations with different geology.

The team also tested isotope levels in rodents that were gathered in different parts of Alaska as part of museum collections. That allowed them to match their mammoth isotope measurements to geographic locations. Finally, they used artificial intelligence software to reconstruct possible paths the mammoth may have taken, working backward from the location where it died at the age of 28.

The results suggest that Kik began its life in the Yukon River basin of central Alaska. As a juvenile it moved regularly in a north-south pattern, during a time when it was likely part of a herd, the researchers said. At about age 16 its movements transitioned to longer distance travel, often centred on certain core areas where it stayed for periods of time before setting out for new pastures.

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“It just takes off and goes on these 500- to 600-kilometre trips all at one time, going from one core area to the next,” Dr. Bataille said. The study found that some of the places where the mammoth lingered are frequented today by migrating herds of caribou.

Jeffrey Rasic, a study co-author and archaeologist with the U.S. National Parks Service based in Fairbanks, said the data suggest that Kik followed a predictable sequence of movements. If that was typical for Alaskan mammoths, it would have provided a huge incentive for hunters moving into the area from Asia to situate themselves in places where they could reliably expect to meet their quarry at certain times of the year, rather than pursuing them over a vast landscape.

“That would be an ideal set-up for intercepting a really big ticket meal item like a mammoth,” he said.

Vincent Lynch, an evolutionary biologist at the University at Buffalo who was not involved in the study, said that while it’s not surprising to find animals moving over great distances, it’s quite a different matter to show that it happened in a species that no longer exists.

“That’s the trick that makes this study interesting,” he said. “It helps us better reconstruct the behaviour and ecology of mammoths in a way that’s really remarkable for an extinct species.”

Dr. Lynch, who has studied the genetics of the last known population of woolly mammoths, which died out about 4,000 years ago, said it’s an open question whether large-scale movement was a disadvantage.

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“We tend to think that widely distributed species which are mobile ... might be better able to find new habitats should the environment change. But could mammoths find refuge in a world that was warming?” he said.

One obvious limitation of the study is that its conclusions depend entirely on the movements of a single individual. Dr. Bataille said that he and his colleagues plan to perform a similar analysis on a female mammoth specimen for comparison.

The team’s study was published Thursday in the journal Science.

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According to most recent research, what is the primary cause of wooly mammoth extinction?

How did climate change affect mammoth' habitat?

restricted habitat
food sources disappearing

What are the causes of the wooly mammoth extinction?

What environmental factors contributed to the wooly mammoth extinction?

Human hunters exploited the predictable movement patterns of woolly mammoths, adding pressure to their extinction.

How did humans contribute to the wooly mammoth extinction?

What are the causes of the wooly mammoth extinction?

The extinction of woolly mammoths had significant ecosystem impacts, including reduced nutrient distribution and altered seed dispersal patterns.

Title:

Content: Cave lions in Europe and mammoths in the United States.
Scientists have told what the Earth would be without Homo sapiens
The researchers say that in general, the planet could be an exciting place, which would be inhabited by representatives of megafauna.
Scientists believe that without humans, the Earth would be a more wild and fertile place, in which giants such as ostrich moa birds with a height of 3.6 meters still lived.
They lived in New Zealand for millions of years, but disappeared 750 years after their land was invaded by man, writes LiveScience.
The vanished giant moas and eagles of Haast, whose wingspan was 2.6 meters or more, are a small example of how human activity has changed the planet.
The survival of such large animals is crucial in thinking about what the Earth would be like without humans, as such giants have a crucial influence on landscapes.
Senior lecturer in zoology at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, Seren Forby, says humans have played a crucial role in the extinction of many large mammals.
Forby led the study, published in the journal Diversity and Distributions.
It said that without humans, the Earth would resemble an ecoregion in East Africa, the Serengeti, teeming with life.
In such a scenario, extinct animals, along with elephants, rhinos and lions, would live throughout Europe.
For example, the African lions (Panthera leo) would still be replaced by cave lions (Panthera spelaea), a larger species that lived in Europe about 12,000 years ago.
At the same time, America would be home to larger relatives of elephants and bears, as well as unique species such as the glyptodon – car-sized armadillos and giant sloths.
“In a world without humans, there would be a lot more different species of large mammals, as well as a much more open habitat, ” says Forby.
Elephants or other species of large animals do not tolerate obstacles in their search for food.
In such cases, the territory acquires a less wooded appearance.
The world would be brighter
During the last Pleistocene Ice Age (2.6 million to 11,700 years ago), the Earth was rich in megafauna.
Much of it went extinct after the end of this ice age or millennia later.
A 2021 study from the journal Nature found that climate change had wiped out woolly mammoths as well as other Arctic megafauna, but humans also put additional pressure on these species by hunting them.
Christopher Doughty, an ecologist at the University of Northern Arizona, modeled how large animals, among other things, affected ecosystems by moving seeds and nutrients during eating and defecating.
The expert found that the movement of elements such as phosphorus, calcium and magnesium, which play a crucial role in life, decreased by almost 90% along with the disappearance of megafauna.
The researcher emphasizes that without human intervention, all the necessary elements would be evenly distributed throughout the landscape.
Thus, the soil would be more fertile and productive.
Agriculture and zoning make land less fertile compared to systems in the wild.
Such increased fertility means that the Earth would be much richer in crops and colors, the planet would definitely be brighter without humans.
Without humans, the climate would be different.
Human induced global warming is known to have raised the average temperature by 1 degree Celsius since the early 20th century.
Consequently, the weather on the planet would be cooler without humanity.
A 2016 study in the journal Nature found that current warming delayed the onset of the ice age by at least 100,000 years.
But this should not have happened for another 50,000 years, so it is unlikely that without humans there would be another ice age on Earth right now.
People are inevitable
Modern humans (Homo sapiens) were not always the only hominins on the planet.
The disappearance of Homo sapiens could open up new perspectives for Neanderthals.
There is no single answer to the question of why the Neanderthals died out about 40 thousand years ago.
There were probably several reasons for their disappearance, and Homo sapiens are the main suspects.
Professor Chris Stringer from the Natural History Museum in London believes that the competition between Neanderthals and humans was one of the reasons for the disappearance of the former.
“If Homo sapiens hadn ’ t come to Europe about 45,000 or 50,000 years ago, I think Neanderthals and their descendants would still have lived on Earth, ” Stringer says.
The expert notes that Neanderthals led a complex life in Europe, they faced climate change, were a small group with low genetic diversity.
“Neanderthals probably were already in distress when modern humans came to their lands, and this factor could be the last, ” the expert notes.
But humans could have influenced the survival of more than just Neanderthals.
At least there is another relative of Homo sapiens who shared land with humans and Neanderthals: the Denisovans.
This line is closer to Neanderthals than to modern humans in terms of genes and appearance.
Judging by a number of studies, people interbred with Denisovans, because modern people continue to find the DNA of Denisovans.
It is assumed that Denisovans had a wider range of habitat than Neanderthals.
They may also have more genetic diversity than Neanderthals.
"Perhaps the Denisovans were even better species for survival than the Neanderthals," Stringer said.
In general, Denisovans and Neanderthals could pave the way similar to H. sapiens, moving from hunting and gathering to the development of agriculture.
"There is no obvious reason why Neanderthals or Denisovans would not have evolved if they had the time to do so," he said.

The study of woolly mammoth extinction provides valuable insights into the impacts of climate change and human activities on species survival, with implications for conservation efforts and the management of modern ecosystems.

Title:

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In-Breeding Likely Didn't End the Last of the Mammoth Population

A study of the last likely surviving mammoth population shows that genetics from in-breeding likely did not lead to their demise.

By Paul Smaglik
Jun 27, 2024 6:20 PMJun 27, 2024 6:22 PM
Wrangel Island mammoth tusk (Credit: Love Dalén)

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It would seem obvious that rising sea levels that cut off the last population of woolly mammoths on Wrangel Island from the Siberian coast 10,000 years ago caused in-breeding, leading to their eventual extinction. But a new genetic analysis, reported in Cell, counters that claim.

That result was unexpected, since an earlier report indicated that the mammoth population likely built up harmful genetic mutations, according to Love Dalén, a scientist with the Centre for Palaeogenetics of Sweden, and one of the paper’s authors.

“I was fairly surprised both at how few the mammoths on Wrangel Island were in the beginning (less than 10 individuals), and that we did not find any evidence for an accumulation of highly deleterious mutations,” Dalén says. He calls the relative lack of harmful mutations surprising, because an earlier paper published in 2017 in PLOS Genetics predicted they may have played a factor.

Natural Selection and Genetic Drift

The genetic story of this population — which likely started from 8 individuals and grew to 200 to 300 mammoths over 6,000 years within 20 generations — is a bit more complicated. Two sometimes competing genetic factors were at play.

Natural selection tends to purge harmful variants, because offspring carrying them would be less likely to survive. But genetic drift works to preserve mutations across generations.

This effect tends to be stronger in smaller populations, so it would make sense that it would impact the Wrangel Island mammoths.

Read More: Rapid Evolution Changes Species in Real Time

What Made the Island Mammoths go Extinct?

Although it appears that these two genetic forces competed, it wasn’t necessarily a fair fight.

“Whereas genetic drift affects all deleterious mutations in the same way, natural selection will be stronger the more deleterious a mutation is,” says Dalén. “That way, natural selection is expected to remove the very deleterious mutations from the population, while genetic drift leads to an increase in slightly deleterious ones.”

Therefore, over time, the most harmful mutations were purged, while a bunch of relatively innocuous ones remained. So, if inbreeding didn’t do in the mammoths, what did?

“This leaves us with some other possibilities, such as a disease outbreak, some sort of tundra fire, or very short-term climatic perturbation, where the latter two could have ruined the plant growth for one or a few seasons, which could have had disastrous consequences for such a small population,” Dalén says.

Read More: How Do We Know When a Species Is Extinct?

Conservation of Today

Although the interplay between natural selection and genetic drift didn’t appear to wipe out the mammoths of yore, it still has implications for conservation efforts of today.

For example, conservationists wishing to preserve a species that has almost gone extinct, but has partially recovered, could look to the Wrangel Island mammoths. The implication is that moving a few individuals between two isolated populations could slow genetic drift.

The study’s authors have yet to analyze DNA from the most recent Wrangel Island mammoths. However, researchers have found fossils from the last 300 years of the mammoths’ existence and plan to analyze their genomes.

Read More: Scientists Are Trying to Save These Animals From Extinction

Article Sources

Our writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:

Before joining Discover Magazine, Paul Smaglik spent over 20 years as a science journalist, specializing in U.S. life science policy and global scientific career issues. He began his career in newspapers, but switched to scientific magazines. His work has appeared in publications including Science News, Science, Nature, and Scientific American.

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How did humans contribute to the wooly mammoth extinction?

What are the causes of the wooly mammoth extinction?

What environmental factors contributed to the wooly mammoth extinction?

The loss of genetic diversity and population decline were significant contributors to the extinction of woolly mammoths, and understanding these factors can inform modern biodiversity conservation programs.

Title:

Content: Disproved the popular hypothesis about the extinction of mammoths: the “mysterious event ” was the real cause of the disappearance
Scientists have refuted the popular hypothesis about the cause of the extinction of mammoths
1: 09 AM
Woolly mammoths survived on Wrangel Island for 6,000 years after the extinction of their mainland counterparts.
A new genomic study has revealed that their last population disappeared not due to genetic inbreeding, as previously thought, but as a result of a sudden and mysterious event.
The study, published in the journal Cell, found that the population of Wrangel Island, which grew from eight to 300 individuals, died 4,000 years ago not for genetic reasons.
DNA analysis of 21 mammoths showed signs of inbreeding and low genetic diversity, but the mutations were only moderately harmful and gradually disappeared.
The exact cause of the mammoths' disappearance remains unknown, but it is assumed that it was a sudden event.
Scientists are planning further studies to unravel this mystery, and believe their findings are important for modern biodiversity conservation programs.
Earlier it was reported that scientists discovered that there was an ocean in Mongolia.
Author Oleg Loginov
Oleg Loginov — HSE student, Pravda.Ru freelance correspondent

What are the causes of the wooly mammoth extinction?

The interaction between climate change and human activities drove the extinction of woolly mammoths, with climate change reducing their habitats and making them more vulnerable to human hunting and other pressures.

How did climate change affect mammoth' habitat?

How did humans contribute to the wooly mammoth extinction?

What aspects of climate change contributed to the wooly mammoth extinction?

What environmental factors contributed to the wooly mammoth extinction?

The speed of climate change was a key factor in the extinction of woolly mammoths, as they were unable to adapt quickly to radical landscape changes.

According to most recent research, what is the primary cause of wooly mammoth extinction?

What are the causes of the wooly mammoth extinction?

What aspects of climate change contributed to the wooly mammoth extinction?

What environmental factors contributed to the wooly mammoth extinction?

The human-mammoth relationship spanned 700-800 years in Siberia, where humans interacted with mammoths and accumulated their bones for ivory technology.

Title:

Content:
This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

fact-checked

peer-reviewed publication

trusted source

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Siberia's 'mammoth graveyard' reveals 800-year human interactions with woolly beasts

Woolly mammoths are evocative of a bygone era, when Earth was gripped within an Ice Age. Current knowledge places early mammoth ancestors in the Pliocene (2.58–5.33 million years ago, Ma) before their populations expanded in the Pleistocene (2.58 Ma–11,700 years ago, kyr). However, as climate changed, their numbers dwindled to isolated populations in modern Siberia and Alaska, until their last dated survival 4 kyr ago.

In the East Siberian Arctic (>70 °N), there is not only evidence of significant woolly mammoth populations, but also how humans interacted with them, the focus of new research in Quaternary Science Reviews.

Along the Berelekh River, Russia, a 'mammoth graveyard' can be found. Here, thousands of disarticulated bones, representing a minimum of 156 individual mammoths, found alongside an indicate the close proximity of these two communities, forming the Berelekh geoarchaeological complex.

Dr. Vladimir Pitulko, of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and colleagues aimed to assess the relationship between the 'mammoth graveyard' and the archaeological site through a re-examination of stratigraphic and paleogeographic data obtained in 2009, with new fieldwork focused on the left riverbanks where have readily yielded from their home in the sediment and appeared on the water's edge. Alongside them are remains of Pleistocene hare, Arctic fox and wolves, as well as soot and charcoal from hearths and worked mammoth tusks (one being an unfinished throwing spear).

The researchers suggest humans created these bone accumulations as a byproduct of the production of mammoth ivory technology, while hares may have been targeted for fur to produce winter clothing.

Notably, evidence of blowfly pupae activity on cavities in skulls and bones is indicative that the mammoth carcasses were added to the 'graveyard' de-fleshed. Indeed, there appears to be evidence of sorting of the bones, with only the most valuable transported to Berelekh from the area in which the mammoth was killed, leaving behind parts such as spinal columns, carpal ('hand') and tarsal ('foot') bones.

There are three radiocarbon dated peaks in woolly mammoth accumulation at 11.8, 12.2 and 12.4 kyr ago, which fall within known human settlement of the area (11.2–12.4 kyr ago) during the Bølling-Allerød deglacial, when the warmed and pollen evidence suggests the region became more arid.

Fluctuations in the abundance of mammoths in the 'graveyard' suggest human settlement of the area may also have changed through time (frequent occupation but not permanent), which the researchers attribute to on the floodplain permitting suitability for erecting campsites.

Radiocarbon dating of mammoth remains identifies their presence here pre-dating human settlement (beginning ~12.5 kyr ago), but also shows that humans remained in the area (until ~11.2 kyr ago) after mass mammoth remains accumulation declined (~11.8 kyr ago).

Given this, four possible causes are suggested by the scientists to explain such a significant mass accumulation of bones: 1) mass death by natural causes or human, 2) repeated group deaths in the same location, likely due to human predation, 3) concentration of remains by , such as river action, or 4) solely derived from human predation or scavenging from deceased carcasses.

However, the latter is considered to be the most likely to produce useful tools from ivory tusks, as well as meat to feed the community, as there is no evidence on the bones for a cause of mass death, radiocarbon ages do not cluster into multiple phases for recurrent death deposits and stream flows were unlikely to reach sufficient velocities to transport such heavy bones.

These findings are concurrent with mammoth remains at the Yana Paleolithic site, also in Siberia. Here, estimates suggest the 'graveyard' increased by 1–2 mammoths per year rather than a mass death event, a figure Dr. Pitulko and colleagues conclude could be similar or even higher for Berelekh.

This research is significant as it alters the previously-held belief that there was a lag of 50–80 years between mammoth bone accumulation from natural processes (such as deposition in flood channels) and , instead now defining a close relationship between the two over 700–800 years. Sadly, now that human-mammoth relationship has continued as ivory hunters have looted the site beyond further study.

More information: Vladimir V. Pitulko et al, From the Berelekh 'mammoth graveyard' to Berelekh geo-archaeological complex: Paleoenvironment, site formation processes, and human-mammoth relationships, Quaternary Science Reviews (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2024.108692

Journal information: Quaternary Science Reviews

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Citation: Siberia's 'mammoth graveyard' reveals 800-year human interactions with woolly beasts (2024, June 10) retrieved 10 June 2024 from https://phys.org/news/2024-06-siberia-mammoth-graveyard-reveals-year.html
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The accumulation of mammoth bones in Siberia was likely caused by human predation or scavenging, rather than natural processes.

According to most recent research, what cause of wooly mammoth extinction is not as important as previously believed?

How did humans contribute to the wooly mammoth extinction?

What are the causes of the wooly mammoth extinction?

The study of the woolly mammoths' extinction in Siberia found that climate change was the primary cause of their extinction, and that humans had no significant influence on their demise.

According to most recent research, what cause of wooly mammoth extinction is not as important as previously believed?

According to most recent research, what is the primary cause of wooly mammoth extinction?

What are the causes of the wooly mammoth extinction?

What aspects of climate change contributed to the wooly mammoth extinction?

What environmental factors contributed to the wooly mammoth extinction?

The extinction of woolly mammoths was likely caused by multiple factors, including climate change, human activities, and the reduction of vegetation.

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Content: Nature and Wildlife: Could woolly mammoths come back from extinction?

Last updated at 05:35
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Woolly mammoths once roamed the planet before becoming extinct 4000 years ago, but could they soon be revived?

Woolly mammoths roamed some of the coldest places on Earth before becoming extinct around 4,000 years ago, but a new bioscience company, has plans to bring them back.

Scientists are planning to use DNA collected from frozen woolly mammoth remains that have been recovered, such as bones, hair, tusks, and teeth, to create a new version of the extinct giant.

The company Colossal is raising millions for their project and say the first calves could arrive in six years.

Professor George Church, co-founder of Colossal, said: "Our goal is to make a cold-resistant elephant, but it is going to look and behave like a mammoth".

The project sounds a lot like the plot of Jurassic Park, and you would be right to think so!

What is a woolly mammoth?
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A woolly mammoth looks a lot like elephants you see today, but they have lots of fur and two big tusks!

A woolly mammoth is the extinct hairy cousin of today's elephants - they even lived at the same time as early humans did.

They were a huge part of the Arctic eco-system and they roamed across the grasslands of North America, Russia, and Europe.

How will scientists bring the woolly mammoth back?
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The Asian elephants are a close relative of the extinct woolly mammoth

The woolly mammoth and Asian elephants share a 99.6% similarity in DNA, according to the company.

Scientists say they hope to use the DNA from both elephants to create a new type of elephant, one that can survive in very cold temperatures.

Once the DNA is combined, scientists will insert it into an embryo, which is the early stage of an unborn animal. An Asian elephant would then carry the new elephant until it's ready for birth.

Technically, the new woolly mammoth isn't an exact copy of the extinct animal, but a new version of the Asian elephant.

Why do scientists want to bring the woolly mammoth back?
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By using DNA taken from elephant tusks, fur and teeth, scientists can use it to mix with the DNA of an Asian elephant

Colossal believe that a healthy heard of woolly mammoth-like elephants could help restore grasslands and ecosystems in the Arctic, and combat climate change.

The grasslands in the Arctic are thought to help battle climate change by capturing and storing carbon, as well as helping maintain methane levels in the atmosphere.

They say the technology used could also be used to help critically endangered species avoid extinction.

How did climate change affect mammoth' habitat?

shrank grassland
food sources disappearing

How did humans contribute to the wooly mammoth extinction?

What are the causes of the wooly mammoth extinction?

What aspects of climate change contributed to the wooly mammoth extinction?

What environmental factors contributed to the wooly mammoth extinction?

The Arctic ecosystems, where woolly mammoths lived, are vulnerable to climate change, and the loss of these ecosystems had significant effects on the environment.

According to most recent research, what is the primary cause of wooly mammoth extinction?

How did climate change affect mammoth' habitat?

What are the causes of the wooly mammoth extinction?

What environmental factors contributed to the wooly mammoth extinction?

The current warming trend has delayed the onset of the next ice age by at least 100,000 years and has changed the planet's landscapes and species distribution.

The rate of extinction on Earth today is more than 100 times what it would have been without humans, highlighting the significant impact of human activity on the environment.

Title:

Content: How would the earth be different if modern man did not exist?
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The human footprint can be seen across the planet today, from the towering skyscrapers that define our modern capitals to the pyramids and other ancient relics from our past.
Human activity also represents the sprawling open fields of agriculture, the roads that connect everything together.
But what would the world look like if humans didn ’ t exist before?
Some scientists paint a picture of a pure wilderness and an abundance of species, from fashionable to uncommon.
Trevor Worthy, a paleontologist and assistant professor at Flinders University in Australia, told Live Science: “I think it would be a much more vegetative place with a wealth of animals, of great size, spread across all continents except Antarctica. ”
A world without modern humans may also mean that our extinct human relatives, such as Neanderthals, will still exist.
And, of course, they would have changed the scene as well.
Humans shaped the world at the expense of many species, from the dodo (Raphus cucullatus) to the Tasmanian tiger (Thylacinus cynocephalus), which pushed us to extinction through activities such as hunting and habitat destruction.
The rate of extinction on Earth today is more than 100 times what it would have been without humans, according to the most conservative estimates, and has not been higher since the Cretaceous and Paleogene (K-Pg) extinction event that wiped out about 80% of animal species, including non-floating dinosaurs, 66 million years ago.
In other words, humans collided with the planet like an asteroid, and the dust continues to settle as wildlife continues to deteriorate.
“My great-grandfather was able to see herds of thousands of parrots in the landscape, my grandfather saw a hundred flocks, my father saw little and I ’ m lucky if I could see two in the woods, ” said Worthy.
The human-driven decline of nature suggests that Earth would be a more wild place without us, with some lost giants, such as moas, standing out the most.
This group of ostrich-like birds, some of which extend up to 11.8 feet (3.6 m) in New Zealand, evolved over millions of years.
Within 200 years of humans reaching their land 750 years ago, all nine species of moa have disappeared, along with at least 25 other vertebrate species, including the giant Haast eagles (Hieraaetus moorei) that hunted moa, according to Worthy.
The giant moa and the Haast vultures are recent examples of large animals whose eventual extinction is linked to human activities, such as unsustainable hunting and the introduction of invasive species into new habitats.
They are also indicators of what our relationship with large animals might be like elsewhere.
The survival of large animals is crucial to speculate on the existence of a land without humans, as these monsters have a significant impact on the landscape.
– Serengeti System
Soren Furby, senior lecturer in zoology at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, believes that humans played a key role in the disappearance of many large mammals thousands of years ago.
He led a 2015 study, published in the journal Diversity and Distributions, which suggested that without humans, the Earth would be much like the contemporary Serengeti system, an African ecosystem teeming with life.
In this scenario, extinct animals similar to those found in Serengeti today – including elephants, rhinos and lions – would live across Europe.
For example, instead of African lions (Panthera leo), there are still cave lions (Panthera spelaea), a slightly larger species that lived in Europe until about 12,000 years ago.
Meanwhile, the Americas will be home to relatives of huge elephants and bears, along with unique species, according to Forby.
"In a world without humans, there will be much more diversity than large mammals, and if you see a greater diversity than large mammals, you tend to see a more open habitat," Forby said.
Elephants and other large animals are well identified when finding food, and will not tolerate unnecessary obstacles.
“If you ’ re old enough, it might be easier to knock on a tree and eat fresh leaves on top of it, ” Forby said.
But also, if there are a large number of large mammals, there is a tendency to have fewer wooded plants in the first place, he said.
Large animals, such as elephants, are known as megafauna.
During the last ice age (2.6 million to 11,700 years ago), the world was rich in megafauna, but most of them died at the end of the ice age, or in the thousands of years since.
For example, about 38 genera of large animals went extinct in North America at the end of the last ice age, according to a 2020 study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Over the past century, scientists have debated whether natural climate changes or human activities, such as overfishing, are the main reason for the decline of these large animals.
A 2021 study published in Nature concluded that climate change ultimately wiped out the woolly mammoths (Mammuthus primigenius) and other Arctic megafauna that survived the end of the ice age.
However, humans hunted mammoths.
Scientists who believe humans may have been the main factor in their extinction, such as Forby, argue that mammoths survived climate change before humans appeared and would probably survive to this day had it not been for the added pressure humans placed on them.
Christopher Dottie, an associate professor and ecologist at Northern Arizona University, is modeling how past and present large animals transport seeds and nutrients through eating and defecating.
His work indicates that the transport of elements such as phosphorus, calcium and magnesium, which are important for life, was reduced by more than 90% through the extinction of large animals.
Dotti hypothesizes that without humans, elements would be evenly distributed across the landscape.
This means more fertile soil, which makes ecosystems more productive.
Humans tend to group elements together through practices such as farming and creating fenced areas, so that these areas become less fertile over time compared to terrestrial systems, according to Dauty.
Greater fertility means that plants can devote their resources to more fruit and flowers, so that the world looks more vibrant and feeds more animals.
While it is difficult to determine how humans and megafauna have influenced climate change for thousands of years with evidence obscured over time, it is much easier to judge our impact on Earth ’ s climate today.
Through global warming, caused by activities such as burning fossil fuels, humans have raised the global average temperature by about 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit (1 degrees Celsius) since the beginning of the 20th century.
Therefore, the Earth would have been at least colder without us.
A 2016 study published in the journal Nature concluded that human-induced warming would delay the next ice age by at least 100,000 years.
And it wasn't due for another 50,000 years, though, even without human delay, so it's unlikely that Earth would be in the middle of another ice age today if we didn't exist.
Humans are inevitable.
Scientists aren ’ t sure why Neanderthals went extinct about 40,000 years ago, but because they mate with Homo sapiens, parts of their DNA are found in some of us.
There were probably multiple causes of Neanderthal death, but we're a prime suspect.
Chris Stringer, a professor and research leader in human origins at the Natural History Museum in London, believes competition for resources was a factor in the disappearance of Neanderthals.
“If we weren ’ t around, if we hadn ’ t come to Europe 45,000 or 50,000 years ago, I think they ’ d probably stay here, ” he told Live Science.
According to Stringer, Neanderthals lived a complex life in Europe, similar to modern humans, but they had difficulty adapting to climate change and were relatively few in number, with low genetic diversity.
This is bad news for any species, as it is a sign of inbreeding and ill health.
Stringer said Neanderthals were probably “already in trouble, and when modern humans got there too, I think that ’ s probably what pushed them to the edge. ”
Scientists are still learning about at least one human lineage that lived around the same time as modern humans and Neanderthals: Denisovans.
This lineage appears to be closer to Neanderthals than modern humans in genes and appearance, but it can be distinguished from Neanderthals with very large molars.
There is evidence of DNA in current humans living in places like New Guinea in Oceania — a finding that suggests Denisovans were in Southeast Asia interacting with ancestors of modern humans who later settled in the East, according to a 2012 study published in the journal Science.
These Denisovan interactions, along with fossil evidence, suggest that they had a larger geographic range than Neanderthals, encompassing a variety of environments and, therefore, arguably, were more adaptive than Neanderthals.
DNA evidence also suggests that Denisovans may have had greater genetic diversity than Neanderthals, according to Stringer.
Stringer said: “There ’ s no reason why Neanderthals or Denisovans shouldn ’ t do it eventually, given enough time. ”
He added that they may have overcome any potential intellectual deficiency, which is not clear to them, through evolution.
So maybe the world won ’ t look completely different after all.
Likewise, they could have made the same mistakes we have made since then.
So, global warming could have been here, but with Neanderthals or Denisovans leading it, not us.
"Who knows?"
Source: Live Science

The conservation of genetic diversity is crucial for the survival of species, and the study of the woolly mammoth's extinction can inform conservation efforts for modern species.

The analysis of DNA from ancient plants and animals has provided valuable information on the impact of climate change on species survival and extinction.

What environmental factors contributed to the wooly mammoth extinction?

The study of fossil records and paleontological data has provided valuable insights into the causes of megafauna extinction, including the woolly mammoths.

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Content: Scientists have estimated the diversity of mammals of the ice age in Siberia - RIA Novosti, 16.11.2023
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Scientists have estimated the diversity of mammals of the ice age in Siberia
© Sergey Gashev, Tyumen State University The bones of large mammals extracted from the reservoir
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MOSCOW, Nov 16 — RIA Novosti.
Scientists of Tyumen State University proved the applicability of environmental methods for assessing the species diversity of fossil communities and found a large number of species of large mammals in the south of Western Siberia during the Pleistocene period, which began 2.5 million years ago and ended 12 – 10 thousand years ago, the press service of the university reported.
The stability of the Earth's biosphere is supported by the species diversity of the animal world.
Depending on the unity of habitats, animals form communities – relatively closed systems that are characterized by different resistance to various external factors.
Estimating the biodiversity of modern fauna is a task that scientists have been solving for more than two centuries.
But the establishment of the number of species and the number of individuals of fossil animals is much more difficult, since the material is fragmented and often it is impossible to quantify the share of a particular species in the community, experts from Tyumen State University (TSU) said.
Deadly dust.
Discovered the true cause of the extinction of the dinosaurs
They assessed the indicators of species diversity of the community of large mammals in Western Siberia according to paleontological data using modern methods.
“
It turned out that the Pleistocene communities of large mammals in the south of Western Siberia differed quite a large number of species, almost 70% of which disappeared in the next geological era, despite the rather high stability of their communities.
The transformation of habitats was so strong as a result of climate change and the influence of primitive man, ” explained Professor Sergey Gashev, Head of the Department of Zoology and Evolutionary Ecology of Animals at Tyumen State University.
To conduct the study, scientists collected paleontological osteological material and quantified it for the relative abundance of individuals of certain species in the sample.
It's complicated.
Scientists have named the causes of mass death of animals around the world
"We found the remains of 16 species and found that the species richness and diversity of large mammal communities in the south of Western Siberia was quite large.
Thus, the Shannon index of species diversity here is equal to almost 3 conventional units, whereas for modern communities it reaches 3.5, very rarely exceeds 4.5.
Taking into account that the paleontological material most often does not fully represent species diversity, this is a very interesting result, "Gashev said.
In the future, the researchers plan to expand the geography of their research both on the territory of the Tyumen region (along the rivers Vagay, Iset, Tavda, etc.), and in other points of the southern part of Western Siberia in the North-South gradient.
The results of the study are published in the journal "Scientific notes of the Khujand State University named after academician B. Gafurov.
Series: Natural and Economic Sciences.
In Russia, created safe methods for enriching plants with selenium and iodine
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The Pleistocene epoch, which lasted from 2.5 million years ago to 12-10 thousand years ago, saw a significant climate shift that affected megafauna, including the woolly mammoths.

According to most recent research, what is the primary cause of wooly mammoth extinction?

How did climate change affect mammoth' habitat?

What are the causes of the wooly mammoth extinction?

What environmental factors contributed to the wooly mammoth extinction?

from 300,000 years ago up until 10,000 years ago

When did the wooly mammoth mostly become extinct?

The woolly mammoths were unable to adapt to the rapid climate change that occurred during this period, leading to their extinction.

According to most recent research, what is the primary cause of wooly mammoth extinction?

What are the causes of the wooly mammoth extinction?

What aspects of climate change contributed to the wooly mammoth extinction?

What environmental factors contributed to the wooly mammoth extinction?

The loss of megafauna, including woolly mammoths, had a significant impact on the environment, leading to an increase in grassland fires and a change in vegetation patterns.

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Content: Saturday 12 November 1443 AH - 11 June 2022 |
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Extinction of these animals has increased grassland fires
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A study has identified that the loss of megafauna in grazing land 50,000 years ago has led to a dramatic increase in grassland fires worldwide.
These large herbivores, which included the iconic woolly mammoth, giant bison and ancient horses, are believed to have become extinct as the climate warms.
However, the experts who led the study from Yale University showed that their loss had conclusive effects, with herbs they no longer ingested to provide fuel for wildfires.
The team added that their findings highlight the need to consider the role of herbivores when predicting current and future global fire activity.
The research was conducted by ancient ecologist Alison Karp of Yale University, Connecticut, and her colleagues.
“These extinctions led to a series of consequences, ” Dr. Karp said, among them, she explained, the collapse of predators and the loss of fruit trees that relied on large herbivores to disperse their seeds.
“Studying these effects helps us understand how herbivores shape the global environment today. ”
The researchers wondered whether the loss of giant herbivores would likely lead to the accumulation of dry grass, leaves and wood, which would lead to an increase in fire activity.
In their study, experts compiled a large list of now lost mammals and approximate dates on which they became extinct across four continents.
Their analysis indicated that South America lost the largest grazing species (83 per cent of all species), followed by North America (68 per cent), Australia (44 per cent) and Africa (22 per cent).
The team then compared this data to records of past wildfire activity as recorded by the presence of coal in lake sediments from 410 locations around the world.
Not only did this reveal wildfire activity increase following the extinction of megafauna, but the Americas, which lost more grazing, saw greater increases in fire levels than in Australia and Africa, where changes were less.
According to Dr. Karp and her colleagues, pastures have changed around the world due to the loss of herbivores, the resulting fires and the loss of grasses eaten by grazing.
It took some time for new livestock breeders, including cattle, to adapt to new ecosystems.
However, the loss of large animal species, such as mastodons, giant sloths and Diprotodons in Australia, which all feed on shrubs and trees, has not been found to be associated with a similar increase in wildfires.
The team said the findings show how we should think about the role of wildlife and livestock herders in mitigating wildfires, especially given climate change.
Study author and ecologist Carla Staffer, also from Yale University, said: “This work really highlights how important grazing is in shaping fire activity. ”
"We need to pay close attention to these interactions if we are to accurately predict the future of fires."

The extinction of megafauna, including woolly mammoths, was a global phenomenon, with many species disappearing due to climate change and human influence.

How did humans contribute to the wooly mammoth extinction?

What are the causes of the wooly mammoth extinction?

What aspects of climate change contributed to the wooly mammoth extinction?

What environmental factors contributed to the wooly mammoth extinction?

In Siberia, 70% of large mammal species disappeared after the Pleistocene epoch, due to climate change and human influence.

What environmental factors contributed to the wooly mammoth extinction?

The study of the temporal and spatial patterns of climate change and human hunting that contributed to the extinction of woolly mammoths is crucial for understanding the complex interactions between human and environmental factors.

How did humans contribute to the wooly mammoth extinction?

What environmental factors contributed to the wooly mammoth extinction?

The transformation of habitats due to climate change and human influence occurred in Western Siberia, leading to the disappearance of 70% of large mammal species.

What environmental factors contributed to the wooly mammoth extinction?

The Shannon index of species diversity in south of Western Siberia was almost 3 units during the Pleistocene period, indicating a high level of biodiversity.

The loss of biodiversity and the extinction of woolly mammoths had significant impacts on the ecosystem, with the current rising global temperature serving as a lesson from mammoth extinction.

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Content: In one of the most common versions of the extinction of giant mamutes, it is claimed that this was caused by the hunting of ancient people.
Our ancestors literally ate most of the animals.
But recent studies say that this is not the case and people have become far from the main reason for the disappearance of mammoths.
Hunger caused by climate change is the real killer.
Searching for gold, but found mammoths: an incredible story with the Yukon
Drawing of a mammoth on the wall of the cave of Arcy-sur-Cure, France / Photo Wikipedia
The Hungry Death of Great Animals
It would seem that mammoths existed for millions of years and survived several ice ages.
That is, climate change did not affect them critically.
But as soon as they encountered humans, they began to die out.
Finally, we were able to prove that the problem was not only climate change, but also the speed of these changes.
This was the last nail in the coffin – the mammoths could not adapt quickly enough when the landscape changed dramatically and food became scarce.
- says the author of the study Eske Willerslev, a professor at the University of Cambridge and director of the Center for Geogenetics of the Lundbeck Foundation at the University of Copenhagen.
The team, led by Prof. Willerslev, sequenced the DNA of plant, animal, and their fossilized excrement, coprolites.
The selection of these samples lasted about 20 years and allowed us to fully understand why the majestic animals died out.
After the end of the last cooling, the glaciers began to melt.
The environment quickly became quite humid, leading to a chain change in flora.
Typical mamut habitats and pastures became increasingly swampy and vegetation changed accordingly.
As a result, there is simply no food left typical for animals.
From birth to death: scientists have fully investigated the life path of the mammoth
Giants did not have time to adapt to rapid changes, so the total number of mammoths was constantly declining.
Because of this, isolated and partially isolated animal populations arose, which already caused little genetic diversity.
It is clear that all this did not positively affect the chances of survival.
Scientists say climate change is critical.
When such changes destroyed mammoths and probably another megafauna.
Today, we live in a time when the average temperature on the planet is rising again, so we need to take this “harsh lesson ” seriously.

According to most recent research, what is the primary cause of wooly mammoth extinction?

What aspects of climate change contributed to the wooly mammoth extinction?

What environmental factors contributed to the wooly mammoth extinction?

The relationship between humans and mammoths existed for 700-800 years in Siberia, with humans interacting with mammoths for resources and potentially contributing to their extinction.

How did humans contribute to the wooly mammoth extinction?

What are the causes of the wooly mammoth extinction?

The mass accumulation of bones found in Russia was likely due to human predation or scavenging, highlighting the impact of human activities on mammoth populations.

How did humans contribute to the wooly mammoth extinction?

What are the causes of the wooly mammoth extinction?

The extinction of woolly mammoths was likely due to a combination of human predation and climate change, as evidenced by the presence of human-processed bones in Siberia.

How did humans contribute to the wooly mammoth extinction?

What are the causes of the wooly mammoth extinction?

What environmental factors contributed to the wooly mammoth extinction?

Human activities, such as hunting and ignition of wildfires, increased significantly during the Ice Age transition, further pressuring the mammoth populations.

Title:

Content: Scientists fear a repeat of an ancient fire that wiped out entire species
Science and Technology
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Over the past decade, deadly wildfires have become increasingly common due to human-induced climate change and disruptive land management practices.
Southern California experienced a wave of wildfires 13,000 years ago.
These fires have permanently changed vegetation in the region and contributed to the largest extinction on Earth in more than 60 million years.
A team of researchers has a unique perspective on the causes and long-term consequences of environmental changes, both those associated with natural climate variability and those caused by humans.
In a new study published in August 2023, researchers sought to understand the changes that occurred in California during the last major extinction event at the end of the ice age.
The event wiped out most of the large mammals on Earth about 10,000 to 50,000 years ago, as dramatic climatic disturbances spread.
Scientists often call the past 66 million years of Earth's history the Age of Mammals.
During that time, some organisms exploited the extinction of dinosaurs to become the dominant species on the planet.
During the Ice Age, Eurasia and the Americas were teeming with enormous beasts such as woolly mammoth, giant bears, and terrible wolves.
Two camels, three species of ground sloths and five species of big cats roamed what is now Los Angeles.
And then suddenly she went away.
Around the world, the large mammals that characterized global ecosystems have disappeared for tens of millions of years.
North America has lost more than 70% of mammals weighing more than 97 pounds (44 kg).
South America lost more than 80%, and Australia lost almost 90%.
Africa, Antarctica and a few remote islands hold what can be considered “normal ” animal communities today.
The cause of these extinctions remains unclear.
For decades, paleontologists and archaeologists have debated possible causes.
With the end of the last ice age, the warming of the climate changed weather patterns and reorganized plant communities.
At the same time, the population was growing rapidly and spreading all over the world.
Either or both of these processes could be involved in the extinction event.
But the fossil record of any region is usually so rare that it is not known exactly when large mammal species from different regions disappeared.
This makes it difficult to determine whether habitat loss, resource scarcity, natural disasters, human hunting, or a combination of these factors is the cause.
Some records provide evidence.
La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles, the richest ice age fossil site in the world, preserves the bones of thousands of large mammals that have been trapped in sticky asphalt spills for the past 60,000 years.
The proteins in these bones can be accurately dated using radiocarbon, giving scientists unprecedented insight into the ancient ecosystem and a chance to shed light on when – and why – it collapsed.
A recent study of La Brea Tar Pits and nearby Lake Elsinore uncovered evidence of a tragic event 13,000 years ago that permanently altered southern California ’ s vegetation and caused the disappearance of La Brea ’ s famous mega-mammals.
Sediment archives from the bottom of the lake and archaeological records provide evidence of a deadly combination — a warm climate punctuated by decades of drought and a rapidly growing population.
These factors have pushed the Southern California ecosystem to a turning point.
The catalyst for this dramatic shift seems to have been the unprecedented increase in wildfires, possibly caused by humans.
The processes that led to this collapse are familiar today.
As California warmed up after emerging from the last ice age, the landscape became drier and forests receded.
In La Brea, herbivores have declined, possibly due to a combination of human hunting and habitat loss.
In the millennium before the extinction, average annual temperatures in the region rose by 5.5 degrees Celsius, and the lake began to evaporate.
Then, 13,200 years ago, the ecosystem went into a 200-year drought.
Half of the remaining trees were lost.
With fewer large herbivores eating them, dead plants accumulated on the landscape.
Humans and our ancestors have used fire for hundreds of thousands of years, but fire has different effects on different ecosystems.
Coal records from Lake Elsinore reveal that before humans, fire activity was low on the southern coast of California.
But from 13,200 to 13,000 years ago, as the population grew, fires in the region increased in order of magnitude.
The research suggests that the combination of heat, drought, loss of herbivores and human fires has pushed this system to a tipping point.
At the end of this period, Southern California was covered with plants that thrive after the fires.
A new fire system was created, and the huge animals disappeared.
Lessons for the future
Studying the causes and consequences of Pleistocene extinctions in California can provide a valuable context for understanding today ’ s climate and biodiversity crises.
A similar combination of climate warming and population expansion, biodiversity loss and human-ignited fires that marked the receding ice age in Southern California is once again emerging today.
The worrying difference is that temperatures today are rising 10 times faster than they were at the end of the ice age, mainly due to the burning of fossil fuels.
This human-caused climate change has contributed to a fivefold increase in the frequency, intensity and area burned in California in the past 45 years.
While California is now famous for severe fires, the study reveals that fire is a relatively new phenomenon in this region.
In the 20,000 years leading up to the extinction, the Lake Elsinore record showed a drastic reduction in the incidence of any fire even during similar droughts.
It is only after the arrival of man that fire becomes a regular part of the ecosystem.
Even today, collapsed power lines, campfires and other human activities have caused more than 90% of wildfires on the California coast.
The similarities between the massive extinctions of the Pleistocene and the current ecological crises are striking.
The past teaches us that the ecosystems we depend on are prone to collapse when subjected to multiple intersecting pressures.
Redoubling efforts to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions, prevent reckless fires and preserve the massive organisms remaining on Earth could help avoid another, more catastrophic transformation.
The report was prepared by Lisa N. Martinez, PhD candidate in Geography from the University of California, Los Angeles, and Regan E. Dunne, Assistant Professor of Earth Sciences from the School of Arts, Arts and Sciences at the University of Southern California, Duransev.
Source: Science Alert
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How did humans contribute to the wooly mammoth extinction?

What are the causes of the wooly mammoth extinction?

The comet fragment that impacted Earth 13,000 years ago may have also contributed to the extinction of woolly mammoths, although the exact impact is still debated.

The loss of large mammal species, including woolly mammoths, led to a 90% decrease in nutrient distribution, affecting ecosystems and landscapes.

The human-induced climate change caused dramatic ecosystem shifts, leading to the extinction of many large mammals, including the woolly mammoths.

According to most recent research, what is the primary cause of wooly mammoth extinction?

What are the causes of the wooly mammoth extinction?

What aspects of climate change contributed to the wooly mammoth extinction?

What environmental factors contributed to the wooly mammoth extinction?

The average temperatures in Southern California rose by 5.5 degrees Celsius before the extinction of the woolly mammoths, indicating a significant climate shift.

According to most recent research, what is the primary cause of wooly mammoth extinction?

What are the causes of the wooly mammoth extinction?

What aspects of climate change contributed to the wooly mammoth extinction?

What environmental factors contributed to the wooly mammoth extinction?

The 200-year drought that occurred 13,200 years ago led to ecosystem collapse, further pressuring the mammoth populations.

According to most recent research, what is the primary cause of wooly mammoth extinction?

How did climate change affect mammoth' habitat?

What are the causes of the wooly mammoth extinction?

What environmental factors contributed to the wooly mammoth extinction?

The human-caused climate change increased California wildfires by fivefold, which may have contributed to the extinction of the woolly mammoths.

The woolly mammoths' inability to adapt quickly to the changing landscape and climate made them vulnerable to extinction.

According to most recent research, what is the primary cause of wooly mammoth extinction?

How did climate change affect mammoth' habitat?

What are the causes of the wooly mammoth extinction?

What aspects of climate change contributed to the wooly mammoth extinction?

What environmental factors contributed to the wooly mammoth extinction?

The isolated animal populations led to low genetic diversity, making the woolly mammoths more susceptible to extinction.

What are the causes of the wooly mammoth extinction?

The melting of glaciers led to a humid environment and changed flora, making it difficult for the woolly mammoths to survive.

According to most recent research, what is the primary cause of wooly mammoth extinction?

How did climate change affect mammoth' habitat?

pastures becoming swampy
restricted habitat

What are the causes of the wooly mammoth extinction?

What environmental factors contributed to the wooly mammoth extinction?

The destruction of habitats and the change in vegetation made it difficult for the woolly mammoths to find food and shelter, ultimately leading to their extinction.

According to most recent research, what is the primary cause of wooly mammoth extinction?

How did climate change affect mammoth' habitat?

shrank grassland
restricted habitat
food sources disappearing

What are the causes of the wooly mammoth extinction?

The human activities, such as hunting and habitat destruction, played a crucial role in the extinction of the woolly mammoths, although the exact impact is still debated.

How did humans contribute to the wooly mammoth extinction?

What are the causes of the wooly mammoth extinction?

The climate change and human activities had a synergistic effect on the woolly mammoths' extinction, making it difficult to attribute the extinction to a single cause.

Title:

Content: What caused the extinction of giant animals?
Science and Technology
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Scientists are asking why giant prehistoric animals, including dinosaurs, pterosaurs, crocodiles and huge snakes, have disappeared.
Fossil evidence suggested that the ancient past already had larger animals and could be classified as huge beasts but also larger on average than today's organisms.
Greg Erickson, a vertebrate paleontologist at Florida State University in Tallahassee who specializes in ancient reptiles, told Live Science: "Since scientists discovered the first known cache of dinosaur bones, in the 19th century, researchers have put forward ideas to explain why giants have been popular millions of years ago but less so today."
Erickson commented, “But no one can point to a single answer. ”
Along with other giant reptiles, dinosaurs can adapt to different areas as they grow over the course of life, chasing smaller prey such as events and larger victims such as adults.
In part, they can do this because they have replaced sets of teeth over a lifetime.
“They constantly change their teeth, just like sharks do, but along the way they can change the type of crocodile teeth, for example moving from needle-like teeth to more powerful teeth, ” Erickson said.
University of Edinburgh paleontologist Steve Brosat told Scientific American: "In dinosaurs the alveoli are likely to extend from their lungs to their bones, creating strong but light scaffolding.
That gave the dinosaurs skeletons that were "still strong and flexible but lightweight and that helped them get bigger and bigger and bigger, in the same way that skyscrapers get bigger and bigger and bigger because of their internal supporting structures," Prosat said.
Physicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson said: "Of course, although airbags have helped form strong, lightweight bones, no animal can reach the size of a skyscraper because body weight grows much faster than bone strength as animals grow in size."
Prosat said mammals lack such air sacs that can invade bones and lighten bones.
It is thought that the size of the elephant may be around the limit that large land mammals can reach, and mammals such as warm-blooded or heat-absorbing creatures need a lot of fuel.
Professor of Geological Biology and Paleontology at the University of California, Davis, told Live Science: "Elephants are complete heat absorbers, and dinosaurs at least herbivorous dinosaurs probably weren't so often, so the nutritional needs of a giant elephant, for example, would be...
Maybe five times bigger than even the biggest dinosaurs. "
Paleontologists debated whether dinosaurs were cold-blooded or warm-blooded, and Erickson said that current science puts many animal species on a gradient between cold-blooded and warm-blooded, and that dinosaurs may have been at the lower end of the warm-blooded range, making the large body less energy-expensive for the dinosaur.
In a 2016 study published in the journal PLOS One Fermage concluded that gigantism is mostly dependent on sufficient resources that are produced and recycled by highly developed ecological infrastructure, in other words the environment needs to produce enough oxygen, food and habitat to grow a truly gigantic being.
Erickson said that although animal breeds tend to reproduce over generations, it takes an enormous amount of evolutionary time to reach gigantic sizes.
Fermage explained that mass extinction events tend to wipe out large creatures, so these events could leave giant animal openings vacant for tens or hundreds of millions of years, commenting: "It took about 25 million years for the first mammals to weigh a ton, in the case of the woolly mammoth, wiped out by climate change and human hunters just 10,000 years ago. These huge creatures: our ancestors helped kill them not so long ago. ”
For Vermeig, the most comprehensive explanation for size reduction comes not from physiology or ecology, but from social structure.
He said: "Evolution...
Organized social behavior, not just herds but really organized hunting, in mammals introduced a new form of dominance.
He wrote in a 2016 study: "Mass hunting by relatively small predators makes even very large prey vulnerable, in fact individual gigantism on land has been replaced by gigantism at the group level."
“Smaller individuals working together, such as wolves and hyenas, for example, may be a more effective way of becoming larger than building a massive body.
Social organization may also help explain a rather gigantic exception to the timeline: In the ocean, the largest animals that ever lived are still present today: blue whales.
"Marine life makes long-distance communication more difficult, hindering the development of complex fishing groups," Fermage said, adding that the development of such groups occurred on land much more than in the ocean, at least until recently, like killer whales.
In one potentially significant environmental change, ancient atmospheres contained higher concentrations of oxygen, and experts say this may have played a role in gigantism, especially among insects.
Source: Live Science
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According to most recent research, what cause of wooly mammoth extinction is not as important as previously believed?

What environmental factors contributed to the wooly mammoth extinction?