# The Extinction of the Woolly Mammoth: Climate Change and Human Impact

## Introduction

The woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) was one of the most iconic species of the Pleistocene epoch, commonly known as the last Ice Age.

These massive relatives of modern elephants roamed across Eurasia and North America for hundreds of thousands of years before their eventual extinction.

Understanding the causes of their disappearance provides valuable insights into how species go extinct and the complex relationship between environmental changes and human activities in prehistoric ecosystems.

## Historical Context and Timeline

Mammoths evolved from African mammoths before spreading across Eurasia and North America.

During the Pleistocene period (2.

6 million to 11,700 years ago), Earth was rich in megafauna, with mammoths being among the most prominent.

The last isolated groups of woolly mammoths are thought to have gone extinct approximately 4,000 years ago, marking the end of a species that had survived multiple glacial cycles.

## Environmental Factors: Climate Change

Climate change played a significant role in the extinction of woolly mammoths.

As the last Ice Age came to an end, dramatic environmental transformations occurred across the mammoth's habitat.

According to a 2021 study published in Nature, climate change was a primary driver in the extinction of woolly mammoths and other Arctic megafauna.

The end of the Pleistocene brought about:
- Rising temperatures and melting ice sheets
- Changes in vegetation patterns, with forests replacing the open grasslands (steppes) that mammoths preferred
- Reduction of suitable habitat as the climate warmed

These environmental changes would have affected the availability of food sources for mammoths.

The transformation of their preferred open habitats into more forested landscapes would have made it more difficult for these large animals to find sufficient food.

As noted in one document, "elephants or other large animals do not tolerate obstacles in their search for food.

In such cases, territories acquire a less forested appearance.

"

## Human Activities: Hunting Pressure

While climate change created challenging conditions, human hunting activities likely delivered the final blow to mammoth populations.

Archaeological evidence confirms that Stone Age humans hunted mammoths, though the exact methods they used to take down these massive animals (weighing up to 9 tons and standing 3 meters high) remain under investigation.

Evidence of human interaction with mammoths includes:
- A southern mammoth skeleton found in Spain bearing cut marks from stone tools, dating back about 1.

2 million years
- Ongoing archaeological investigations at sites where researchers are trying to determine if mammoths simply died naturally or fell into traps set by humans

The hunting pressure from expanding human populations would have been particularly impactful on mammoths because:
1.

Large animals are more sensitive to human interference and habitat alteration
2.

Mammoths had long gestation periods and slow reproductive rates, making it difficult for their populations to recover from hunting losses
3.

As climate change was already stressing mammoth populations, hunting would have added additional pressure that the species could not withstand

## The Interplay Between Climate Change and Human Hunting

The extinction of the woolly mammoth was likely not caused by a single factor but rather by the combination of climate change and human hunting.

This "double blow" scenario suggests that:

1.

Climate change during the end-Pleistocene reduced mammoth populations and fragmented their habitats
2.

As mammoth numbers declined and became more concentrated in remaining suitable areas, they became more vulnerable to human hunters
3.

Human hunting prevented the recovery of mammoth populations that were already stressed by environmental changes

This combination of factors created a situation from which the mammoth could not recover.

The Nature study mentioned earlier specifically noted that while climate change was the primary driver, humans also exerted additional pressure on these species through hunting.

## Biological Vulnerabilities of Megafauna

The extinction of mammoths also highlights the particular vulnerabilities of large animals (megafauna) to environmental changes and human pressure:

- Large animals have longer gestation periods and take more time to reach sexual maturity, making population recovery slower
- They require larger territories and more food resources, making them more sensitive to habitat fragmentation
- Their size makes them more noticeable targets for human hunters

As one document explains, larger animals are "more sensitive to human interference, habitat loss and alteration.

" This sensitivity would have made mammoths particularly vulnerable to the combined pressures of climate change and human hunting.

## Lessons for Modern Conservation

The extinction of the woolly mammoth offers important lessons for understanding current biodiversity loss and conservation challenges:

1.

**Combined Threats**: Just as mammoths faced multiple simultaneous threats (climate change and hunting), many modern species are facing the combined pressures of habitat loss, climate change, and human exploitation.

**Slow Reproduction**: Species with slow reproductive rates, like mammoths, are particularly vulnerable to extinction when faced with additional pressures.

This is relevant to many modern large mammals such as elephants and rhinos.

**Habitat Transformation**: The transformation of mammoth habitats from open grasslands to forests demonstrates how climate change can alter ecosystems in ways that make them unsuitable for specialized species.

**Human Impact**: The role of human hunting in mammoth extinction illustrates how even relatively small human populations can have significant impacts on large animal species.

The current biodiversity crisis, with wildlife populations having declined by almost 70% in the last 50 years and one million plant and animal species at risk of extinction, mirrors the pressures that led to the mammoth's extinction, but on a much larger scale and at a much faster pace.

## De-extinction Efforts and Ethical Considerations

Interestingly, there are ongoing efforts to resurrect the woolly mammoth through genetic engineering.

However, these efforts raise important questions about resource allocation and ecological ethics:

- Should substantial resources be devoted to resurrecting extinct species when so many living species are currently threatened with extinction?

- What would be the ecological consequences of reintroducing a species like the mammoth into ecosystems that have significantly changed since its extinction?

- How might the technology developed for de-extinction be used responsibly?

As one document notes, "de-extinction research requires substantial resources, both in terms of funding and scientific expertise.

Critics argue that these resources could be better utilized for conserving endangered species and protecting existing biodiversity.

"

## Conclusion

The extinction of the woolly mammoth represents a complex interplay between natural climate change and human hunting pressure.

While environmental changes at the end of the last Ice Age created challenging conditions for mammoths, human activities likely prevented their adaptation and survival.

This prehistoric extinction event offers valuable insights into how species respond to multiple simultaneous threats and serves as a cautionary tale for our current biodiversity crisis.

Understanding the mammoth's extinction helps us recognize the profound impact humans can have on ecosystems, even with relatively simple technology.

It also highlights the particular vulnerability of large, slow-reproducing species to environmental changes and human exploitation.

As we face the current extinction crisis, these lessons from the past emphasize the importance of addressing multiple threats simultaneously and the need for proactive conservation efforts to prevent further losses of Earth's magnificent megafauna.

# The Extinction of the Woolly Mammoth: Climate Change and Human Impact

## Introduction

The woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) was one of the most iconic species of the Pleistocene epoch, commonly known as the last Ice Age.

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.

Title:

Content: No jokes about overindulging please, but an Austrian winemaker found three enormous mammoths while renovating his wine cellar.

Well, their bones.

Experts have called the find, in Gobelsburg, north west of Vienna, as the most significant of its kind in more than 100 years and an archaeological sensation.

In addition to adding to the catalogue of mammoth bones already discovered, the fact all three animals appear to be on top of each other could suggest they were caught in a trap. This could help answer a question that has long puzzled archaeologists – how did humans hunt these giant creatures?

The stunning find was made by Andreas Pernerstorfer, who discovered what he initially thought was a piece of wood while digging out the cellar. He reported the find to the Federal Monuments Office, which referred him to the Austrian Archaeological Institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW).

Around 150 years ago flint artefacts, jewellry fossils and charcoal were all found in an adjacent cellar, which were thought to be around 30,000 to 40,000 years old.

Archaeologists believe the layer of mammoth bones probably belonged to the same site.

They think the ‘significant bone layer’ contains the remains of at least three different mammoths.

‘Such a dense layer of bones is rare,’ said Hannah Parow-Souchon, who is leading the excavation. ‘It is the first time that we have been able to examine something like this in Austria using modern means – a unique opportunity for research.’

Mammoths: the lowdown

Mammoths are an extinct member of the elephantidae family, which includes modern-day elephants.

There were several species of mammoth, the most well-known of which is the woolly mammoth – which was also the smallest.

Mammoths evolved from the African mammoth, before spreading across Eurasia and North America.

The last mammoths, isolated groups of woolly mammoths, are thought to have gone extinct about 4,000 years ago.

However, work is ongoing to try to resurrect the species.

Researchers have long known that people in the Stone Age hunted mammoths, but exactly how they were able to take down the nine-tonne, three metre-high animals is unknown.

Now the team is investigating the site to try to determine did they simply die there, or did they fall into a trap set by locals?

If the answer is B, it will change our understanding of how Stone Age societies operated.

Once the dig is complete, the bones will be sent to the Natural History Museum in Vienna for restoration.

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

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

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

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

These massive relatives of modern elephants roamed across Eurasia and North America for hundreds of thousands of years before their eventual extinction.

Title:

Content: Extinction is coming!... but it won’t be the end of the world. A history of Earth suggests humanity will eventually die out — but new life forms will evolve to take our place

  • Thomas Halliday is a Fellow in Earth Sciences at Birmingham University
  • Delves into the vast stretches of Earth’s pre-history that lie behind us in a book
  • Author begins by examining the last Ice Age and the herbivores the roamed

OTHERLANDS

By Thomas Halliday (Allen Lane £20, 416 pp)

Dig deep below contemporary London gravel to the clay, and you will find astonishing fossilised remains of crocodiles, sea turtles and early relatives of horses.

They lived in an epoch when London was ‘forests of mangrove palm and pawpaw, and waters rich in seagrass and giant lily pads, a warm, tropical paradise’.

More recently there was a time when, instead of Landseer’s stone lions, real lions lived in what is now Trafalgar Square, gazing down on herds of elephants and hippos grazing beside a wide, meandering river.

This mind-boggling scene introduces us to the concept of ‘deep time’, explains Thomas Halliday, as he leads us on a mesmerising journey into those vast stretches of Earth’s pre-history that lie behind us, on such a scale that you experience a kind of temporal vertigo just thinking about it.

Thomas Halliday delves into the vast stretches of Earth's pre-history that lie behind us in a fascinating new book. Pictured: Mammoths roamed the ancient tundra

Halliday is a Fellow in Earth Sciences at Birmingham University, but he is also a brilliant writer, his lyrical style vividly conjuring myriad lost worlds from the patchy but sometimes startling fossil records. Each chapter here takes us further back in time, to an older and more alien earth with every passing epoch.

We begin a mere 20,000 years ago, in the heart of the last Ice Age, and on the dry plains of Alaska: the eastern end of the awesome Mammoth Steppe, an unbroken grassland that stretched (sea levels being much lower then) all the way from the Americas across Russia to Ireland.

Over these plains roamed immense herds of herbivores: camels, (yes, camels are originally American, later migrating to the Old World over the Bering Strait), bison, horses and mammoths.

The last mammoths actually survived until just 4,500 years ago, contemporaries of the Pyramids and Stonehenge, a small and increasingly inbred group on Wrangel Island near Russia.

Top predator of the Steppe was unquestionably the short-faced bear, which on its hind legs towered a metre above the three-metre-high shoulder of a mammoth.

But there were also humans around. We know this from ‘the footprints of a gleeful group of children, running through the ditchgrass into the mud of a chalky lakeshore, 22,500 years before the present,’ and still visible ‘in the white sands of New Mexico’.

Thomas begins the book in the heart of the last Ice Age,  revealing the last mammoths actually survived until just 4,500 years ago (file image)

Imagine what stories they must have told each other by the evening fire, sharing their landscape with creatures including mammoths and short-faced bears . . .

By chapter three we have dived back 5.33 million years to a truly apocalyptic moment. The Mediterranean then was sealed off from the Atlantic by a land bridge at Gibraltar, joining Africa to Europe.

The inland sea had evaporated, so where the Med now sparkles there was only a huge dried-out salt lake, in some places 4 kilometres below sea level, with temperatures down there reaching 80c — some 25c hotter than anything ever recorded in Death Valley, California.

Mammoths still existed when the Pyramids were built

This burning saline desert was dotted with cooler volcanic island plateaus covered in cedar trees, and ‘a shrubland of pistachio, box, stooping carobs and gnarled olives’.

One day, a trickle of Atlantic sea-water began to seep over the top of the Gibraltar land-bridge, eroding the dry earth as it went, until the trickle became a stream, then a river — then an unstoppable cascade.

A mile high and several miles wide, the torrent roared over and dropped at 100 miles per hour, throwing up a ‘tumultuous cloud mist’, with the eastern Mediterranean becoming a sea once more in just one astonishing year.

Sicily and Malta became islands in that sea, populated by hippos, dwarf elephants and the Terrible Moon-Rat (yes, that was actually A Thing).

OTHERLANDS By Thomas Halliday (Allen Lane £20, 416 pp)

There are so many wonders here: a rock wall in modern Bolivia where dinosaur footprints climb gecko-like up a sheer vertical cliff, because the surface of the earth has tilted 90 degrees over 32 million years; beavers and hedgehogs, Asian arrivals, wiping out native European primates; the incredible fact that it was on huge rafts of vegetation riding the ocean currents that many animals, including monkeys and guinea pigs, travelled accidentally from Africa to South America, surviving an ocean voyage of at least six weeks on their uncertain craft.

Going back to 550 million years ago, our world seems like another planet altogether.

Then there were animals so strange that scientists have named them Hallucigenia, and there was no North Star in the sky, nor a single star of the seven in Orion, nor brilliant Sirius. None of these familiar stars had even been born yet.

Journeying into the abysses of deep time in Otherlands certainly makes the reader feel very small and transient — a feeling both humbling and comforting — and surely reminds us that we pay our minor daily troubles too much attention.

Barring some unprecedented effort of global cooperation, which seems a little unlikely at present, the world will rapidly head back soon to something like the steamy, swampy Eocene epoch of 50 million years ago, bringing a mass extinction of today’s flora and fauna (including us, unfortunately), and then, after a few million more years, a huge explosion of unimaginable new species better suited to this hothouse earth.

This planet is still, as the book’s subtitle reminds us, ‘a world in the making’.

It’s obviously a bit of a gamble choosing one’s Book of the Year in March — but there’s a very good chance already that mine will be Otherlands. Stunning.

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When did the last population of wooly mammoth become extinct?

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

When did the wooly mammoth mostly become extinct?

Understanding the causes of their disappearance provides valuable insights into how species go extinct and the complex relationship between environmental changes and human activities in prehistoric ecosystems.

Title:

Content: Advertisement

Nature

Dinosaur Diversity Was In Decline For 10 Million Years Before Extinction

Stephen Luntz

Freelance Writer

Jun 29 2021, 16:52 UTC

One of the great debates in paleontology has been updated. According to a new paper in Nature Communications the diversity of dinosaur species was declining in the last 10 million years of the Cretaceous Era. However, that doesn't mean that the old theory the dinosaurs were on their way out, asteroid or no asteroid, has necessarily been vindicated.

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Fossil records show fewer dinosaur species in the immediate lead-up to the asteroid impact than millions of years earlier, particularly in North America. This observation has set off furious debate. According to one interpretation, dinosaurs were teetering on the edge of extinction 66 million years ago, and the asteroid provided nothing more than the final push. Others have challenged this idea, arguing the apparent lack of species reflects a decline in fossil-preserving geology on the western side of North America's inland seaway.

Broader sampling indicates the species decline was real, the authors of the new study claim, with more extinctions than new species formation over the period 76-66 million years ago. "We looked at the six most abundant dinosaur families through the whole of the Cretaceous, spanning from 150 to 66 million years ago, and found that they were all evolving and expanding and clearly being successful,” lead author Dr Fabien Condamine of the Université de Montpellier said in a statement. "Then, 76 million years ago, they show a sudden downturn. Their rates of extinction rose and in some cases, the rate of origin of new species dropped off."

Condamine and co-authors claim this decline holds up even once one allows for variations in the quality of the fossil record available from different times, as well as other possible sources of error.

"We also looked at how these dinosaur ecosystems functioned, and it became clear that the plant-eating species tended to disappear first, and this made the latest dinosaur ecosystems unstable and liable to collapse if environmental conditions became damaging." said co-author Dr Guillaume Guinot

The authors think the major cause of this decline was climate change. Although there were plenty of fluctuations, the very long-term trend in the Late Cretaceous took place about 50,000 times more slowly than it is doing today, and in the opposite direction. Slow as this was, warmth-adapted dinosaurs apparently couldn't cope. The cooler temperatures towards the end also allowed for a modest uptick in mammalian abundance, possibly squeezing smaller dinosaurs from some niches.

A reduction in species doesn't necessarily mean fewer individual animals. Condamine and Guinot found the hadrosaurs were flourishing until very close to the end, and may have pushed other species to extinction. Perhaps the planet was teeming with them to the point there was little food for others. A more diverse ecosystem is healthier and more resilient, but an abundance of one family doesn't really suggest the dinosaurs were in grave danger, barring one very unpredictable event.

Meanwhile, the Atlantic Ocean at the time supported more large predator species than any ecosystem we know of before or since. Since these all went extinct at the same time as the dinosaurs (birds aside) did on land, it's certainly not the case that only the animals already in decline were pushed over the edge by the asteroid's impact.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Title:

Content: How the Amazon rainforest could become a savannah
07:34 - Source: CNN

Editor’s Note: Lydia Strohl is a freelance writer in Washington, DC. More of her work can be found here. The views expressed in this commentary belong to the author. View more opinion at CNN.

CNN  —

When I first learned that October 22 marks Half-Earth Day, I thought it was because the date is six months to Earth Day. (True.) But it’s got a message all its own.

Half-Earth is the notion that for humans to survive, we must retain earth’s waning biodiversity by reserving half the planet for nature, stabilizing large swaths of ocean, prairie, rainforest and desert to house the birds, insects and ecosystems that affect the water we drink, the food we eat, the air we breathe. Not to mention the economies, cultures and past-times that sustain us.

The Half-Earth Project was inspired by legendary Harvard biologist E.O. Wilson, who died in 2021 at the age of 92. In “Half-Earth: Our Planet’s Fight for Life,” Wilson wrote: “We would be wise to find our way as quickly as possible out of the fever swamp of dogmatic religious belief and inept philosophical thought through which we still wander. Unless humanity learns a great deal more about global biodiversity and moves quickly to protect it, we will soon lose most of the species composing life on Earth.”

This means us, people, who Wilson calls a “lucky accident of primate evolution during the late Pleistocene.”

Not a particularly happy accident, perhaps, for Planet Earth. Since 1970, the global population has doubled to nearly 8 billion. And in those five decades, monitored wildlife populations have declined by an average of 69%, warns the recent Living Planet Report, World Wildlife Fund’s study of the abundance of species worldwide (select vertebrate species; others are difficult to track). Freshwater populations have been hit the hardest, declining 83% over this time period. One million plant and animal species, out of the estimated 8 million out there, are in danger of extinction.

It is time to change our ways, from using to stewarding earth’s resources. People cannot thrive at the expense of nature. Latin America has seen a whopping 94% decline in species populations. Meanwhile, deforestation for crops and cattle, legal and illegal mining and logging, development, and devastating wildfires have contributed to a 20% loss of the Amazon rainforest – an area the size of France. This doesn’t just affect the 350 indigenous communities and untold species of plants, animals and insects living there, but all of us, as the 400 billion trees that make up the Amazon rainforest produce an estimated 6% of earth’s oxygen.

What makes humans more comfortable on earth now threatens the planet: energy, food production, growth in housing and commercial development. These are all systems Wilson believed we need to rethink. But just as the problem lies with us, so does the solution.

To move people to action, Jennifer Morris, CEO of The Nature Conservancy, thinks it’s important to talk about what matters to them, citing health care, clean air and jobs. Morris spoke at a recent Half-Earth Day conference hosted by Smithsonian Institution and the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation, bringing together government, community, corporate and conservation stakeholders like The Nature Conservancy, Audubon, and supporters like the Bezos Earth Fund. “Governments aren’t going to move until people move,” Morris said.

The problems are thorny, however: even high-minded efforts can provoke Mother Nature. “The biggest threat to forests in Virginia is solar,” Morris said, referring to clean energy projects slated to take out thousands of acres of trees. “We can be smart where we put solar and wind … in a way that doesn’t undermine biodiversity,” Morris added.

The Half-Earth Project looks at growth through the lens of nature, with tools that map richness and rarity in wildlife populations as well as human pressures and existing protections, hoping to inform both preservation and development. I dial their online map down to my community, close to the screaming orange urban mass of Washington, DC, but dotted with green conservation areas established by both public and private authorities.

The E.O Wilson Biodiversity Laboratory – located in Mozambique’s Gorongosa National Park, which was once decimated by civil war and other human ills – provides a blueprint not only for rebuilding biodiversity but also training new biologists and conservationists. The Half-Earth project also involves indigenous communities – which have traditionally balanced human needs with nature – in their programs, bringing together past and present, to work together towards a durable plan for our future.

While the first Earth Day took place in 1970 to celebrate conservation efforts, Half-Earth Day is more of a caution. Whatever your beliefs on climate change, this much is clear. We’re losing whitetip sharks and harpy eagles, the inspiration for ‘Fawkes’ in the Harry Potter films. Gone are the Bramble Cay melomys, a small rodent whose habitat, food source and nesting sites were eradicated by storms and unprecedented flooding. You may never see a pink dolphin, but the interplay of plant, animal and insect species sustains us.

Attacking a problem of this scale requires all of us – from those seated in governments and board rooms to our own kitchen tables – to come together. Too often, “solutions” whipsaw between administrations with their own political agendas. “Meanwhile, we thrash about, appallingly led, with no particular goal in mind other than economic growth, unfettered consumption, good health, and personal happiness,” Wilson wrote. He placed his faith in nature, and we should too.

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    “We need to listen to what the birds are telling us. We’ve lost three billion birds in my lifetime,” says Audubon CEO Elizabeth Grey, who is in her 50s. “Birds are sentinels for healthy land and water – if birds are in trouble, people are too.”

    The canary is singing. Listen, before its voice is stilled.

Title:

Content: You will not miss us!
8,008 followers
Fascinating theories about the extinction of Neanderthals
Neanderthals were a race of people who inhabited the earth several thousand years ago.
They were like us in many ways, but at the same time they were very different.
So why did they die out?
A bit of history
About 12 km east of the German city of Düsseldorf, there is a valley with a small river called Neanderthal.
During the 19th century, the valley served as a limestone quarry.
In 1856, local workers came across bones in one of the caves, thinking it was a bear that had died many years ago.
The workers collected the bones and took them out.
A local school teacher saw them and realized that they did not belong to a bear, but looked like human bones.
The only problem was that they looked unusually thick and had rather strange shapes.
After a series of studies, a major breakthrough occurred in 1864, when Irish geologist William King studied them and published a report stating that the bones were indeed human, but belonged to a different species than modern ones.
He named the species Homo neanderthalensis (Neanderthal man) after the valley where the bones were found.
Further research on this topic shed light on the fact that the Neanderthal, in fact, was a distant relative of the modern race of intelligent man.
They lived in Europe 600,000-350,000 years ago.
Moreover, archaeological studies have shown that this species disappeared somewhere around 30,000 years ago.
Fast Fact
A recent breakthrough in the study of Neanderthals suggests that their large eyes led to extinction.
Because of the large size of the eyes, their brains used more power to process visual images than other functions.
What happened to the Neanderthals?
Since the likely dates when Neanderthals may have gone extinct have been put forward and recognized, there has been a lot of research to find out why these causes occurred.
Numerous hypotheses are still highly controversial.
Coexistence with modern humans
As already mentioned, about 30,000 years ago, Neanderthals died out, perhaps because they did not get along with modern humans.
Modern humans migrated to Europe about 40,000 years ago.
Thus, this hypothesis has solid ground according to some studies.
According to this hypothesis, when modern humans moved to Europe, or rather encroached on these territories, Neanderthals were forced to live in isolation due to the growing interference of intelligent man, in their original habitat.
Thus, their numbers have been declining every year, primarily due to their inability to compete with modern humans.
This theory is highly controversial, as it has no concrete evidence regarding the interaction between Neanderthals and modern humans.
Inability to compete
This theory states that two species cannot coexist in the same ecological environment, and the moment one species gains even the slightest advantage over the other, it will dominate, thereby the weak species will completely die out.
This may have been the case with the Neanderthals when modern humans emerged.
Homo sapiens are taller than Neanderthals, and they walk and run faster.
The ability of modern humans to use spoken language and produce a huge range of sounds gave them an advantage over Neanderthals, who were not able to produce complex words.
One of the main differences between them was that modern man had a more developed brain.
This allowed him to do things much better and with greater ease.
Violence and genocide
Jared Diamond suggested that the extinction of Neanderthals could be the result of acts of mass violence and genocide.
According to him, the scenario is similar to some modern wars.
In addition, some archaeologists and scientists believe that the first Homo sapiens were cannibals.
However, again, like previous theories, this hypothesis is also not based on solid evidence.
Microbes and parasites
The intelligent man came to the world of Neanderthals from other parts of the planet.
During their migration, they may have brought with them certain pathogens, viruses and microorganisms that were completely unknown to the Neanderthal immune system.
It is possible that when these two species came into contact with each other, one of them failed to resist the newly acquired diseases.
Climate Change
Another hypothesis, in relation to the extinction of Neanderthals, refers to a dramatic change in climatic conditions during the last Ice Age, when Europe was a semi-desert with scarce vegetation.
The result of all this is the extinction of many species of plants and animals that were a major part of Neanderthal food.
One theory is that Neanderthals suffered from a decline in food resources, which subsequently led to starvation and extinction.
Another theory states that they did not adapt to the new climatic conditions, therefore, they could not survive the changes.
Partial Extinction
This is a very interesting hypothesis that suggests that they are not quite extinct, in fact, it is possible that Neanderthals and intelligent humans interbred.
According to a 2010 study, "between one and four percent of the DNA of many people alive today comes from Neanderthals."
This means that the complete extinction of Neanderthals seems an extremely unlikely scenario.
However, not a single convincing theory, of all of these above, is not.
In the absence of solid evidence, it is very difficult to determine exactly what happened to Neanderthals.
Research on this topic continues to this day, and if there are no solid leads, the results will always remain unclear.
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Content: How Mammals Survived the Doom World After Dinosaur Extinction
• Martha Henrik
by Martha Henriques
Asteroids struck Earth to wipe out dinosaurs and destroy most species on Earth, but mammals survived the ordeal.
On one of the worst days of life in the history of the planet, a small furry animal runs in terror through the dark, volcanic ash and deadly heat of hell, searching the scorched earth for sustenance, catching an insect, and immediately fleeing to its own underground shelter.
Surrounded by the large bodies of dead or dying dinosaurs, these giants have threatened the survival of poor mammals for generations.
This is the hellish scene of the first few weeks or months after an asteroid 10 kilometers in diameter and the power of more than 1 billion nuclear bombs hit the coast of Mexico today.
The violent impact of this mountain collapse ended the Cretaceous and heralded the beginning of the Paleocene era, a time when global forests were in flames, huge tsunamis hit the coast, and hot gasified rocks, volcanic ash and dust washed up miles high into the atmosphere.
But life survives in this devastated world. Among the survivors are the earliest known primate, the Purgatorius, a mammal that looks like a hybrid of shrews and squirrels.
After this global extinction disaster, the population of the Purgatori monkey will certainly decrease, but fortunately the species has been preserved and can be passed on to future generations.
This was the life of early mammals after an asteroid struck the Earth, killing three-quarters of the species on the planet at the time.
On the extinction of life, in the entire history of the Earth, only 252 million years ago, the Permian-Triassic extinction event, that is, the Great Dying event, exceeded this asteroid collision with Earth.
The mass extinction event caused 95% of marine life and 70% of terrestrial life to die, but the extinction process was extremely slow, lasting up to 60,000 years, unlike the asteroid impact disaster that suddenly came from the sky.
So how did these tiny, fragile creatures, including our mammalian ancestors, survive the apocalypse?
The asteroid that struck Earth to end the Cretaceous also ended famous dinosaurs such as Tyrannosaurus and Triceratops, as well as the lesser-known but rather bizarre Anzu, known as the “Chicken from Hell. ”
In addition, there are duck-billed dragons, giraffe dragons, and dinosaurs with full body armor.
All the dinosaurs died.
In the late Cretaceous geologic era, in the shadow of these giants, small mammals such as the Pulga Tori monkeys, many lived as lowly and lowly as rodents such as today ’ s rats.
But how did these seemingly fragile creatures, including our human ancestors, miraculously survive the end of the world?
This is exactly what Steve Brusatte, author of The Rise and Reign of the Mammals, and his colleagues at the University of Edinburgh have been working on.
Brusatte stressed that the day the asteroid struck Earth was a life-or-death catastrophe for any life on Earth, including mammals, birds (i.e., bird dinosaurs) and reptiles.
“It ’ s not an ordinary asteroid, it ’ s the largest asteroid to hit Earth in at least the last 500 million years. ”
Mammals are almost as likely to be wiped out as dinosaurs. "
However, many species of mammals have disappeared in this unprecedented natural disaster.
Sarah Shelley, PhD in Mammals Paleontology, Edinburgh, says the diversity of mammals was already amazingly abundant in the late Cretaceous.
"Many mammals are small animals that live in trees or caves and eat insects," she said.
However, not all mammals are insectivores.
At that time, there was also a mysterious polygonal tooth, named after special nodules in the teeth.
“The mammal ’ s teeth are blocky, with a lot of small bumps on them, and the front has a blade shaped tooth that looks like a saw, ” says Shelley.
They eat fruits, nuts and seeds. "
There were also carnivorous mammals at the time, and one of the largest, Didelphodon, was a marsupial, weighing about 5 kilograms and about the size of today's domestic cats.
"From the skull and the anatomy of the teeth, the bite force of the rodentosaurus was very strong, and it was able to break bones, so it must have been a carnivore," Shelley said.
Brusatte said many of the late Cretaceous mammal species were largely wiped out after the asteroid hit Earth, and about 90 percent of them were wiped out, but this instead offered an unprecedented opportunity for surviving animals that survived the disaster.
"You can imagine that one of our small ancestors, the size of a mouse, a timid little thing hidden in the dark, but you survived this moment in the history of the earth," said Brusatte.
When the disaster passes, you rise up and suddenly find that the big, terrible creatures of Tyrannosaurus rex and the giraffe are gone, and the whole world is open for you. ”
This mass extinction created the conditions for a vast variety of new species, eventually bringing blue whales, cheetahs, dormice, duckbills and, of course, us humans.
First of all, here is a reminder: after the impact, the world's forests were swallowed by wildfires, the sky was full of smoke and dust, the sun was obscured, the sun was not visible, and the plants were unable to photosynthesize.
As Brusatte puts it, the Earth ’ s ecosystem is collapsing “like a house of cards. ”
The earth ’ s surface temperatures have become hotter than the oven due to the vicious pulses that rise and fall like a roller coaster, but then the earth enters a cold nuclear winter, with temperatures falling by an average of 20 degrees Celsius for more than 30 years. While many of the most dangerous predators of mammals have disappeared, the Earth ’ s environment has become unimaginably bad for life.
How can mammals adapt to such a harsh environment and continue their species?
Go on, little animals.
Prior to the asteroid extinction disaster, mammals were small in size due to the intense competition and predation of dinosaurs, but for the rest of their lives they became a beneficial asset for "post-disaster animal refugees."
“These mammals look and behave like rats, big and small.
Usually they survive silently in the dark corners, but in this new world after the disaster, mammals proliferate because they are so well suited to the horrendous environment of an asteroid hitting Earth. ”
Small size may help speed up animal reproduction and increase numbers.
In the modern animal world, says Ornella Bertrand, a postdoctoral student in mammalian paleontology at the University of Edinburgh, “the bigger you get, the longer you get pregnant. ”
For example, the gestation period of African elephants is 22 months, while the gestation period of mice is only about 20 days.
Therefore, in the event of a doomsday disaster, the small mouse is more likely to keep the population growing.
In addition to the long gestation period, larger animals will also have a much longer time to reach sexual maturity, especially large dinosaurs.
This is another reason why dinosaurs could not survive the apocalypse.
“Dinosaurs took quite a long time to mature, ” Brusatte said.
Animals like Rex Tyrannosaurus will take about 20 years.
This is not to say that dinosaurs don ’ t grow fast, but many species of dinosaurs are really too large, and it takes a long time to grow from a very small young to a large adult. ”
Hiding underground to escape.
Another clue to unravel the mystery of the survival of mammals after the asteroid hit Earth is that fossils of mammals found in the Paleocene and earlier layers have a "very strange" shape.
Mammalian ankles found in the early Paleocene strata are small, tough, dense and well preserved.
Shelley analyzed the ankles to see how similar these mammals are to the mammals that live on Earth today.
"We found that Paleocene mammals were strange, different from modern mammals," she said.
The common denominator is short but strong. "
These mammals have strong muscles and huge skeletons, which are most similar to those of today ’ s animals that dig burrows in the ground.
“The resulting hypothesis suggests that the animals that survived the extinction had an advantage in that they dug holes in the ground and were able to survive the first disaster after a direct impact, as well as the subsequent ground fires and nuclear winters, and that they could simply lurk underground and wait for the disaster to pass. ”
Let ’ s put it this way, because the survivors of these annihilations survived, and so did their descendants.
“You can see this mammal for 10 million years in the Paleocene, even though it ’ s still bulky to live in a tree, ” Shelley said.
If the surviving mammals do live underground, whether they dig their own burrows or sojourn in the underground caves of other animals, Bertrand suspects that this may also be reflected in the agility of the mammals, or in other words, their lack of agility.
“We know that the forest has been destroyed, so all the animals that live on the trees have lost their habitat. ”
Therefore, one hypothesis is that few living animals are as agile as tree dwellers. "
Bertrand intends to study the inner ear bones of mammals of this era to determine whether his findings confirm the hypothesis that these mammals survived by hiding underground after the asteroid impact.
The inner ear plays a great role in the balance of the animal's limbs, and if animals need to be agile, their bones will have the corresponding fine structure.
But if an animal only needs to be strong enough to dig a hole, that agility is superfluous.
“It could give us more clues, ” she says. That said, but Bertrand also points out that relying too much on bones to infer the animal ’ s athletic behavior is flawed, something she ’ s impressed with watching the recent Commonwealth Games.
Bertrand said with a laugh, “I saw gymnasts do some crazy things, and I thought, it ’ s funny, we have the same bone structure, and I can ’ t do it. ”
I think it ’ s really interesting because maybe having this ability can help you survive, but from the bone you don ’ t know if you have it. ”
Miscellaneous food brings survival advantages
Asteroids have destroyed most of the living plants on Earth, and plants are the lowest link in the many food chains on Earth. Omnivorous mammals can eat any food and are more adaptable to the environment than animals that eat only certain special foods, so they have a greater chance of survival.
"Animals that survived this extermination are basically not very special eaters," Shelley said.
For example, Didelphodon, a close relative of a cat-sized carnivorous marsupial, preyed on only one animal, but after the extinction it became very rare.
Shelley said, "Rat-toothed dragons have too much food, so they have lost their way of survival.
However, if you are a small animal, you can change your diet and lifestyle more quickly to adapt to your environment.
This is a good way to survive the Great Extinction. "
In addition to animals that can eat everything to survive, there are few animals with special diets that will also have an advantage, especially those that eat plant seeds.
“Seeds are a food bank that doesn ’ t run out, ” he says,“ and any animal that has already eaten seeds can also get them when they are exterminated. ”
So, if animals like Tyrannosaurus rex are not so lucky, evolution has not given such animals the ability to digest seeds.
But for beaked birds and some mammals that specialize in eating plant seeds, wow, is this the time to move on? ”
In addition to supporting the survival of animals affected by disasters, plant seeds also help to rebuild forests and vegetation after the nuclear winter has disappeared.
“Seeds can survive in the soil when the sun comes down again, and they start to germinate and grow, ” says Brusatte.
Body is not brain.
With the past of the Paleocene, the Earth is alive and well again, as mammals begin to fill the void left by non-avian dinosaurs, becoming the strongest living species on Earth.
“Immediately after the extinction of the dinosaurs, mammals began to evolve in a variety of ways, ” Bertrand said.
First, the mammal ’ s body rapidly grows larger.
But the Edinburgh team found that changes in mammalian brain size did not keep pace with the rate at which their bodies grew larger.
“I think it ’ s very important, ” Bertrand said,“ because we thought it might be the intellectual development that allowed the mammals to survive and eventually be able to rule the planet. ”
But, from the data, it ’ s not the brain that grows to allow animals to survive an asteroid impact. ”
In fact, in the early Paleocene, mammalian brains relative to the body, if too large, may be detrimental to survival.
Bertrand asked, “Why do you need a big brain? ”
In fact, large brain blocks are quite expensive.
If you have a large brain, you need to eat a lot to maintain it, and if you can ’ t do it without enough food, you will go extinct. ”
Instead, mammals need their entire body to become larger and stronger in order to be able to adapt to their environment.
In the hundreds of thousands of years after extinction, the herbivore Ectoconus weighed about 100 kg.
It is a family of Periptychidae that may be related to existing hoofed mammals.
Hundreds of thousands of years in the geological age, just a blink of an eye.
Shelley said, “It ’ s amazing how quickly the Echinaceans grow so big, how quickly they develop their herbivorous habits. ”
You see, once there are large herbivores, there are large carnivores, and mammals start to evolve rapidly. "
There are many other mysterious mammalian bodies that are also rapidly expanding.
Shelley said, “Animals like the toothed beast grow up very fast and grow very large.
A complete skeleton has not yet been found, but a skull fossil has found that its skull is about the size of a large butternut squash, and it seems to be one of the species that became strong after the extinction to adapt to excavation.
“The eye position is small, the eyes are small, but there are huge teeth in front, which is a bit like a rodent, but that ’ s all. ”
This is a very mysterious animal. "
These mammalian species, which evolved rapidly from the afterlife of the pogroms, have long been ignored by the scientific community, Shelley said.
She said the scientific community had "thought they were ancient, primitive, ordinary, and unremarkable, but they really had their own characteristics."
Their ancestors, who survived the second great extinction in the history of life on Earth, are by no means the usual dumb animals that slow-motion their lives.
They live and reproduce wonderfully. "
These mammals in many ways fill the ecological space left behind by the tragic extinction of dinosaurs.
Living habits are highly individualized, and dinosaurs as large as the bulls are very adaptable to the late Cretaceous environment, but lack the ability to survive the disaster world after the asteroid impact.
“What is most shocking is that there were once animals like dinosaurs on our planet that lived for hundreds of millions of years, making such great and glorious histories as they evolved into airplane-sized giants, carnivores as big as buses, and so on, but when the earth suddenly suffered a huge change, these giants were wiped out in a flash. ”
Dinosaurs can't cope with the new world, they can't adapt to survive. "
The randomness of an asteroid impact on Earth seems to be particularly affecting the University of Edinburgh research team that has studied how mammals can escape extinction.
“We humans have come to this world today largely by luck, ” Bertrand said.“ The asteroid that hit the Earth may have passed the Earth, or it may have fallen into the ocean in another region of the Earth, either way, will have different consequences for the evolution of future life species. ”
Whenever I think about the contingency of this whole thing, I think it ’ s amazing. ”
Broussard felt the same way.
“It ’ s possible that an asteroid just shouts outside the Earth, it ’ s possible that it ’ s just churning up the upper atmosphere, it ’ s possible that it ’ s already disintegrated when it approaches the Earth, ” he said.
This asteroid had all kinds of possibilities, but it was really bad luck, it hit the Earth directly. "
But for mammals living on Earth today, this disaster may be a godsend.
Please visit BBC Future to read the original article in English

## Historical Context and Timeline

Mammoths evolved from African mammoths before spreading across Eurasia and North America.

Title:

Content: No jokes about overindulging please, but an Austrian winemaker found three enormous mammoths while renovating his wine cellar.

Well, their bones.

Experts have called the find, in Gobelsburg, north west of Vienna, as the most significant of its kind in more than 100 years and an archaeological sensation.

In addition to adding to the catalogue of mammoth bones already discovered, the fact all three animals appear to be on top of each other could suggest they were caught in a trap. This could help answer a question that has long puzzled archaeologists – how did humans hunt these giant creatures?

The stunning find was made by Andreas Pernerstorfer, who discovered what he initially thought was a piece of wood while digging out the cellar. He reported the find to the Federal Monuments Office, which referred him to the Austrian Archaeological Institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW).

Around 150 years ago flint artefacts, jewellry fossils and charcoal were all found in an adjacent cellar, which were thought to be around 30,000 to 40,000 years old.

Archaeologists believe the layer of mammoth bones probably belonged to the same site.

They think the ‘significant bone layer’ contains the remains of at least three different mammoths.

‘Such a dense layer of bones is rare,’ said Hannah Parow-Souchon, who is leading the excavation. ‘It is the first time that we have been able to examine something like this in Austria using modern means – a unique opportunity for research.’

Mammoths: the lowdown

Mammoths are an extinct member of the elephantidae family, which includes modern-day elephants.

There were several species of mammoth, the most well-known of which is the woolly mammoth – which was also the smallest.

Mammoths evolved from the African mammoth, before spreading across Eurasia and North America.

The last mammoths, isolated groups of woolly mammoths, are thought to have gone extinct about 4,000 years ago.

However, work is ongoing to try to resurrect the species.

Researchers have long known that people in the Stone Age hunted mammoths, but exactly how they were able to take down the nine-tonne, three metre-high animals is unknown.

Now the team is investigating the site to try to determine did they simply die there, or did they fall into a trap set by locals?

If the answer is B, it will change our understanding of how Stone Age societies operated.

Once the dig is complete, the bones will be sent to the Natural History Museum in Vienna for restoration.

MORE : Unlucky worker accidentally snaps arm off famous Mexican mummy

MORE : Getting a tattoo could trigger blood cancer

MORE : Cases of most deadly skin cancer soar to an all-time high

During the Pleistocene period (2.

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

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

6 million to 11,700 years ago), Earth was rich in megafauna, with mammoths being among the most prominent.

When did the wooly mammoth mostly become extinct?

The last isolated groups of woolly mammoths are thought to have gone extinct approximately 4,000 years ago, marking the end of a species that had survived multiple glacial cycles.

Title:

Content: No jokes about overindulging please, but an Austrian winemaker found three enormous mammoths while renovating his wine cellar.

Well, their bones.

Experts have called the find, in Gobelsburg, north west of Vienna, as the most significant of its kind in more than 100 years and an archaeological sensation.

In addition to adding to the catalogue of mammoth bones already discovered, the fact all three animals appear to be on top of each other could suggest they were caught in a trap. This could help answer a question that has long puzzled archaeologists – how did humans hunt these giant creatures?

The stunning find was made by Andreas Pernerstorfer, who discovered what he initially thought was a piece of wood while digging out the cellar. He reported the find to the Federal Monuments Office, which referred him to the Austrian Archaeological Institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW).

Around 150 years ago flint artefacts, jewellry fossils and charcoal were all found in an adjacent cellar, which were thought to be around 30,000 to 40,000 years old.

Archaeologists believe the layer of mammoth bones probably belonged to the same site.

They think the ‘significant bone layer’ contains the remains of at least three different mammoths.

‘Such a dense layer of bones is rare,’ said Hannah Parow-Souchon, who is leading the excavation. ‘It is the first time that we have been able to examine something like this in Austria using modern means – a unique opportunity for research.’

Mammoths: the lowdown

Mammoths are an extinct member of the elephantidae family, which includes modern-day elephants.

There were several species of mammoth, the most well-known of which is the woolly mammoth – which was also the smallest.

Mammoths evolved from the African mammoth, before spreading across Eurasia and North America.

The last mammoths, isolated groups of woolly mammoths, are thought to have gone extinct about 4,000 years ago.

However, work is ongoing to try to resurrect the species.

Researchers have long known that people in the Stone Age hunted mammoths, but exactly how they were able to take down the nine-tonne, three metre-high animals is unknown.

Now the team is investigating the site to try to determine did they simply die there, or did they fall into a trap set by locals?

If the answer is B, it will change our understanding of how Stone Age societies operated.

Once the dig is complete, the bones will be sent to the Natural History Museum in Vienna for restoration.

MORE : Unlucky worker accidentally snaps arm off famous Mexican mummy

MORE : Getting a tattoo could trigger blood cancer

MORE : Cases of most deadly skin cancer soar to an all-time high

When did the last population of wooly mammoth become extinct?

## Environmental Factors: Climate Change

Climate change played a significant role in the extinction of woolly mammoths.

Title:

Content: Title: Unlocking Nature’s Secrets: The Fascinating Journey of Animal Recreation

Kuyamba:
The realm of science has always been driven by curiosity and the pursuit of knowledge. In recent years, scientists have embarked on an extraordinary endeavor: recreating animals that have long vanished from our planet. This groundbreaking field of research, known as de-extinction, holds the potential to reshape our understanding of the natural world and the intricate web of life. In this article, we will delve into the captivating world of animal recreation, exploring the methods, challenges, and ethical considerations involved in this awe-inspiring scientific pursuit.

Understanding De-extinction:
De-extinction refers to the process of resurrecting extinct species by utilizing advanced genetic engineering techniques. It involves piecing together the genetic puzzle of an extinct animal using DNA fragments extracted from preserved remains, such as bones or feathers. Once the genetic blueprint is reconstructed, scientists can attempt to reintroduce the species into its native habitat or a suitable alternative environment.

The Process of Animal Recreation:
1. Genetic Reconstruction: The first step in recreating an extinct animal involves obtaining its genetic material. This can be achieved through various means, including extracting DNA from well-preserved specimens or utilizing advanced genomic sequencing techniques to reconstruct the animal’s genome.

2. Genome Editing: Once the genetic material is obtained, scientists employ cutting-edge techniques like CRISPR-Cas9 to edit the genome. This process involves removing or replacing specific genes to ensure the recreated animal possesses the necessary traits for survival.

3. Surrogate Mothers: In cases where the extinct species cannot be directly recreated, scientists rely on surrogate mothers from closely related species. By modifying the surrogate’s reproductive cells with the edited genome, it becomes possible to give birth to offspring that closely resemble the extinct species.

Zovuta ndi Kulingalira Kwamakhalidwe:
1. Genetic Gaps: The process of de-extinction heavily relies on the availability and quality of genetic material. In cases where DNA is fragmented or incomplete, scientists face significant challenges in accurately reconstructing the animal’s genome.

2. Ecological Impact: Reintroducing a long-extinct species into its former habitat can have unforeseen consequences. The ecological dynamics may have changed since the species’ extinction, potentially leading to disruptions in the existing ecosystem.

3. Resource Allocation: De-extinction research requires substantial resources, both in terms of funding and scientific expertise. Critics argue that these resources could be better utilized for conserving endangered species and protecting existing biodiversity.

Mafunso Ofunsidwa Kawirikawiri (FAQ):

Q1: Can any extinct animal be recreated?
A1: While the possibility of recreating extinct animals is theoretically feasible, it largely depends on the availability of well-preserved genetic material. Some species, like the woolly mammoth, have been the focus of intense research due to the relatively well-preserved remains found in frozen environments.

Q2: Is de-extinction just a scientific curiosity, or does it serve a purpose?
A2: De-extinction holds the potential to restore lost biodiversity and revive ecosystems that have been impacted by the extinction of key species. It also offers an opportunity to study and understand extinct species, shedding light on their ecological roles and evolutionary history.

Q3: Are there any ethical concerns associated with de-extinction?
A3: Ethical considerations surrounding de-extinction primarily revolve around resource allocation, potential ecological disruptions, and the prioritization of conserving existing endangered species. Striking a balance between de-extinction efforts and conservation efforts is crucial to ensure responsible scientific progress.

In conclusion, the field of animal recreation through de-extinction represents a remarkable scientific frontier. While it offers tantalizing possibilities for restoring lost biodiversity and understanding extinct species, it also poses significant challenges and ethical dilemmas. As scientists continue to push the boundaries of genetic engineering, the future of de-extinction remains both captivating and contentious, requiring careful consideration and responsible scientific stewardship.

By

Title:

Content: No jokes about overindulging please, but an Austrian winemaker found three enormous mammoths while renovating his wine cellar.

Well, their bones.

Experts have called the find, in Gobelsburg, north west of Vienna, as the most significant of its kind in more than 100 years and an archaeological sensation.

In addition to adding to the catalogue of mammoth bones already discovered, the fact all three animals appear to be on top of each other could suggest they were caught in a trap. This could help answer a question that has long puzzled archaeologists – how did humans hunt these giant creatures?

The stunning find was made by Andreas Pernerstorfer, who discovered what he initially thought was a piece of wood while digging out the cellar. He reported the find to the Federal Monuments Office, which referred him to the Austrian Archaeological Institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW).

Around 150 years ago flint artefacts, jewellry fossils and charcoal were all found in an adjacent cellar, which were thought to be around 30,000 to 40,000 years old.

Archaeologists believe the layer of mammoth bones probably belonged to the same site.

They think the ‘significant bone layer’ contains the remains of at least three different mammoths.

‘Such a dense layer of bones is rare,’ said Hannah Parow-Souchon, who is leading the excavation. ‘It is the first time that we have been able to examine something like this in Austria using modern means – a unique opportunity for research.’

Mammoths: the lowdown

Mammoths are an extinct member of the elephantidae family, which includes modern-day elephants.

There were several species of mammoth, the most well-known of which is the woolly mammoth – which was also the smallest.

Mammoths evolved from the African mammoth, before spreading across Eurasia and North America.

The last mammoths, isolated groups of woolly mammoths, are thought to have gone extinct about 4,000 years ago.

However, work is ongoing to try to resurrect the species.

Researchers have long known that people in the Stone Age hunted mammoths, but exactly how they were able to take down the nine-tonne, three metre-high animals is unknown.

Now the team is investigating the site to try to determine did they simply die there, or did they fall into a trap set by locals?

If the answer is B, it will change our understanding of how Stone Age societies operated.

Once the dig is complete, the bones will be sent to the Natural History Museum in Vienna for restoration.

MORE : Unlucky worker accidentally snaps arm off famous Mexican mummy

MORE : Getting a tattoo could trigger blood cancer

MORE : Cases of most deadly skin cancer soar to an all-time high

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?

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?

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?

As the last Ice Age came to an end, dramatic environmental transformations occurred across the mammoth's habitat.

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?

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

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?

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

According to a 2021 study published in Nature, climate change was a primary driver in the extinction of woolly mammoths and other Arctic megafauna.

Title:

Content: ADVERTISING

TECHNOLOGY

CIA wants to revive prehistoric species such as the woolly mammoth

The CIA is funding a project that aims to revive iconic species like the woolly mammoth and Tasmanian tiger, but it’s not good news.

The CIA has become the latest investor in Colossal Biosciences, a genetic engineering company that wants to revive iconic species of the past, such as the woolly mammoth and Tasmanian tiger. According to LiveScience, reports indicate that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency is funding research into the ‘resuscitation’ of extinct prehistoric species.

Through a venture capital investment firm called In-Q-Tel, which is funded by the CIA, the government agency has made a financial commitment to Texas-based Colossal Biosciences. The latter’s official website explains that its goal is to “see the woolly mammoth thunder over the tundra once again” by combining “genetic science with the business of discovery.”

ADVERTISING - CONTINUE READING BELOW

According to the In-Q-Tel blog, investing in the project will help the U.S. government “set the ethical standards” for genetic engineering technology and keep the country at the forefront of nations that may also be interested in engineered genetic code modification research.

Reviving prehistoric creatures

Colossal Biosciences appears to be interested in bringing back various prehistoric animals, such as the woolly mammoth that inhabited Arctic regions from North America to Siberia and became extinct at the end of the Pleistocene due to the disappearance of its natural habitat.

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But the interest in reviving species also includes others such as the Dodo bird, which disappeared from the Earth at the end of the 17th century due to human causes. The Tasmanian tiger is another animal that Colossal has its sights set on; this species became extinct in the 20th century, also due to anthropological causes.

Is it feasible to bring the species back?

Genetic engineering has been used in the past for nature conservation, but only cloning has been used as a measure to prevent species from becoming extinct forever. Genes have been taken from captive-bred specimens for cloning and then reintroduced into the wild.

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So far, genetic modification using the CRISPR addition technique, which is used to ‘copy, paste and replace’ specific gene sequences in DNA, is not a tool that has been used for nature conservation, and many have warned about the dangers this would bring.

The woolly mammoth, for example, lived in the ice age when temperatures were much lower than they are now. It became extinct due to climate change that wiped out its natural habitat, so the thought of reviving it brings with it an inherent ethical debate that cannot be ignored.

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In any case, the large amounts of money that the CIA intends to invest in resuscitating the woolly mammoth and other ancient species could be used for the conservation of species that are currently in danger of disappearing. However, it seems that beyond an animalistic objective, the agency seems to have a special interest in genetic modification, an area that is increasingly growing and completely lacks ethical and professional guidelines.

Story originally published in Spanish in Ecoosfera

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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?

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 end of the Pleistocene brought about:
- Rising temperatures and melting ice sheets
- Changes in vegetation patterns, with forests replacing the open grasslands (steppes) that mammoths preferred
- Reduction of suitable habitat as the climate warmed

These environmental changes would have affected the availability of food sources for mammoths.

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

How did climate change affect mammoth' habitat?

food sources disappearing
shrank grassland
restricted 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?

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

How did climate change affect mammoth' habitat?

food sources disappearing
shrank grassland
restricted 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 transformation of their preferred open habitats into more forested landscapes would have made it more difficult for these large animals to find sufficient food.

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

How did climate change affect mammoth' habitat?

food sources disappearing
shrank grassland
restricted habitat

What are the causes of the wooly mammoth extinction?

As noted in one document, "elephants or other large animals do not tolerate obstacles in their search for food.

In such cases, territories acquire a less forested appearance.

"

## Human Activities: Hunting Pressure

While climate change created challenging conditions, human hunting activities likely delivered the final blow to mammoth populations.

Title:

Content: No jokes about overindulging please, but an Austrian winemaker found three enormous mammoths while renovating his wine cellar.

Well, their bones.

Experts have called the find, in Gobelsburg, north west of Vienna, as the most significant of its kind in more than 100 years and an archaeological sensation.

In addition to adding to the catalogue of mammoth bones already discovered, the fact all three animals appear to be on top of each other could suggest they were caught in a trap. This could help answer a question that has long puzzled archaeologists – how did humans hunt these giant creatures?

The stunning find was made by Andreas Pernerstorfer, who discovered what he initially thought was a piece of wood while digging out the cellar. He reported the find to the Federal Monuments Office, which referred him to the Austrian Archaeological Institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW).

Around 150 years ago flint artefacts, jewellry fossils and charcoal were all found in an adjacent cellar, which were thought to be around 30,000 to 40,000 years old.

Archaeologists believe the layer of mammoth bones probably belonged to the same site.

They think the ‘significant bone layer’ contains the remains of at least three different mammoths.

‘Such a dense layer of bones is rare,’ said Hannah Parow-Souchon, who is leading the excavation. ‘It is the first time that we have been able to examine something like this in Austria using modern means – a unique opportunity for research.’

Mammoths: the lowdown

Mammoths are an extinct member of the elephantidae family, which includes modern-day elephants.

There were several species of mammoth, the most well-known of which is the woolly mammoth – which was also the smallest.

Mammoths evolved from the African mammoth, before spreading across Eurasia and North America.

The last mammoths, isolated groups of woolly mammoths, are thought to have gone extinct about 4,000 years ago.

However, work is ongoing to try to resurrect the species.

Researchers have long known that people in the Stone Age hunted mammoths, but exactly how they were able to take down the nine-tonne, three metre-high animals is unknown.

Now the team is investigating the site to try to determine did they simply die there, or did they fall into a trap set by locals?

If the answer is B, it will change our understanding of how Stone Age societies operated.

Once the dig is complete, the bones will be sent to the Natural History Museum in Vienna for restoration.

MORE : Unlucky worker accidentally snaps arm off famous Mexican mummy

MORE : Getting a tattoo could trigger blood cancer

MORE : Cases of most deadly skin cancer soar to an all-time high

How did humans contribute to the wooly mammoth extinction?

What are the causes of the wooly mammoth extinction?

How did humans contribute to the wooly mammoth extinction?

What are the causes of the wooly mammoth extinction?

Archaeological evidence confirms that Stone Age humans hunted mammoths, though the exact methods they used to take down these massive animals (weighing up to 9 tons and standing 3 meters high) remain under investigation.

Title:

Content: No jokes about overindulging please, but an Austrian winemaker found three enormous mammoths while renovating his wine cellar.

Well, their bones.

Experts have called the find, in Gobelsburg, north west of Vienna, as the most significant of its kind in more than 100 years and an archaeological sensation.

In addition to adding to the catalogue of mammoth bones already discovered, the fact all three animals appear to be on top of each other could suggest they were caught in a trap. This could help answer a question that has long puzzled archaeologists – how did humans hunt these giant creatures?

The stunning find was made by Andreas Pernerstorfer, who discovered what he initially thought was a piece of wood while digging out the cellar. He reported the find to the Federal Monuments Office, which referred him to the Austrian Archaeological Institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW).

Around 150 years ago flint artefacts, jewellry fossils and charcoal were all found in an adjacent cellar, which were thought to be around 30,000 to 40,000 years old.

Archaeologists believe the layer of mammoth bones probably belonged to the same site.

They think the ‘significant bone layer’ contains the remains of at least three different mammoths.

‘Such a dense layer of bones is rare,’ said Hannah Parow-Souchon, who is leading the excavation. ‘It is the first time that we have been able to examine something like this in Austria using modern means – a unique opportunity for research.’

Mammoths: the lowdown

Mammoths are an extinct member of the elephantidae family, which includes modern-day elephants.

There were several species of mammoth, the most well-known of which is the woolly mammoth – which was also the smallest.

Mammoths evolved from the African mammoth, before spreading across Eurasia and North America.

The last mammoths, isolated groups of woolly mammoths, are thought to have gone extinct about 4,000 years ago.

However, work is ongoing to try to resurrect the species.

Researchers have long known that people in the Stone Age hunted mammoths, but exactly how they were able to take down the nine-tonne, three metre-high animals is unknown.

Now the team is investigating the site to try to determine did they simply die there, or did they fall into a trap set by locals?

If the answer is B, it will change our understanding of how Stone Age societies operated.

Once the dig is complete, the bones will be sent to the Natural History Museum in Vienna for restoration.

MORE : Unlucky worker accidentally snaps arm off famous Mexican mummy

MORE : Getting a tattoo could trigger blood cancer

MORE : Cases of most deadly skin cancer soar to an all-time high

Title:

Content: Subscribe now

Humans

Mammoth carcass was scavenged by ancient humans and sabre-toothed cats

A southern mammoth skeleton found in Spain bears cut marks from stone tools and bite marks from carnivore teeth, suggesting that both hominins and felids feasted on its meat

By Jeanne Timmons

18 March 2024

A mammoth that died about 1.2 million years ago became a meal for both ancient humans and sabre-toothed cats, an analysis of its bones has revealed.

Southern mammoths (Mammuthus meridionalis) were larger than today’s elephants and roamed Eurasia during the Pleistocene.

The skeleton is one of only a handful throughout the world with evidence of cut marks that old. It was excavated about 20 years ago from a fossil-rich…

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How did humans contribute to the wooly mammoth extinction?

What are the causes of the wooly mammoth extinction?

How did humans contribute to the wooly mammoth extinction?

What are the causes of the wooly mammoth extinction?

Evidence of human interaction with mammoths includes:
- A southern mammoth skeleton found in Spain bearing cut marks from stone tools, dating back about 1.

Title:

Content: Subscribe now

Humans

Mammoth carcass was scavenged by ancient humans and sabre-toothed cats

A southern mammoth skeleton found in Spain bears cut marks from stone tools and bite marks from carnivore teeth, suggesting that both hominins and felids feasted on its meat

By Jeanne Timmons

18 March 2024

A mammoth that died about 1.2 million years ago became a meal for both ancient humans and sabre-toothed cats, an analysis of its bones has revealed.

Southern mammoths (Mammuthus meridionalis) were larger than today’s elephants and roamed Eurasia during the Pleistocene.

The skeleton is one of only a handful throughout the world with evidence of cut marks that old. It was excavated about 20 years ago from a fossil-rich…

Sign up to our weekly newsletter

Receive a weekly dose of discovery in your inbox! We'll also keep you up to date with New Scientist events and special offers.

Sign up

To continue reading, subscribe today with our introductory offers

View introductory offers

No commitment, cancel anytime*

Offer ends 2nd of July 2024.

*Cancel anytime within 14 days of payment to receive a refund on unserved issues.

Inclusive of applicable taxes (VAT)

or

Existing subscribers

Sign in to your account

How did humans contribute to the wooly mammoth extinction?

What are the causes of the wooly mammoth extinction?

2 million years
- Ongoing archaeological investigations at sites where researchers are trying to determine if mammoths simply died naturally or fell into traps set by humans

The hunting pressure from expanding human populations would have been particularly impactful on mammoths because:
1.

Title:

Content: No jokes about overindulging please, but an Austrian winemaker found three enormous mammoths while renovating his wine cellar.

Well, their bones.

Experts have called the find, in Gobelsburg, north west of Vienna, as the most significant of its kind in more than 100 years and an archaeological sensation.

In addition to adding to the catalogue of mammoth bones already discovered, the fact all three animals appear to be on top of each other could suggest they were caught in a trap. This could help answer a question that has long puzzled archaeologists – how did humans hunt these giant creatures?

The stunning find was made by Andreas Pernerstorfer, who discovered what he initially thought was a piece of wood while digging out the cellar. He reported the find to the Federal Monuments Office, which referred him to the Austrian Archaeological Institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW).

Around 150 years ago flint artefacts, jewellry fossils and charcoal were all found in an adjacent cellar, which were thought to be around 30,000 to 40,000 years old.

Archaeologists believe the layer of mammoth bones probably belonged to the same site.

They think the ‘significant bone layer’ contains the remains of at least three different mammoths.

‘Such a dense layer of bones is rare,’ said Hannah Parow-Souchon, who is leading the excavation. ‘It is the first time that we have been able to examine something like this in Austria using modern means – a unique opportunity for research.’

Mammoths: the lowdown

Mammoths are an extinct member of the elephantidae family, which includes modern-day elephants.

There were several species of mammoth, the most well-known of which is the woolly mammoth – which was also the smallest.

Mammoths evolved from the African mammoth, before spreading across Eurasia and North America.

The last mammoths, isolated groups of woolly mammoths, are thought to have gone extinct about 4,000 years ago.

However, work is ongoing to try to resurrect the species.

Researchers have long known that people in the Stone Age hunted mammoths, but exactly how they were able to take down the nine-tonne, three metre-high animals is unknown.

Now the team is investigating the site to try to determine did they simply die there, or did they fall into a trap set by locals?

If the answer is B, it will change our understanding of how Stone Age societies operated.

Once the dig is complete, the bones will be sent to the Natural History Museum in Vienna for restoration.

MORE : Unlucky worker accidentally snaps arm off famous Mexican mummy

MORE : Getting a tattoo could trigger blood cancer

MORE : Cases of most deadly skin cancer soar to an all-time high

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?

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?

Large animals are more sensitive to human interference and habitat alteration
2.

Title:

Content: Environment

Protecting and restoring wildlife offers a new climate solution

Protecting and restoring wildlife offers a new climate solution
A new study has shown that protecting and restoring wildlife could capture billions of tons of carbon dioxide yearly
View 1 Image
1/1
A new study has shown that protecting and restoring wildlife could capture billions of tons of carbon dioxide yearly

A new study has suggested that by protecting and restoring wildlife, we can enhance natural carbon capture mechanisms and reduce climate change.

Introducing natural solutions to tackle climate change by protecting and enhancing carbon capture in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems has the added advantage of protecting animal species.

While many of the current natural climate solutions are focused on protecting and restoring plant ecosystems, researchers say that we’re overlooking another way of reining in negative emissions: wild animals. The process of using wild animal conservation to enhance carbon capture and storage is called animating the carbon cycle (ACC).

However, taking full advantage of ACC requires protecting and restoring animal species to adequate numbers that enable them to fulfill their ecological function, otherwise known as trophic rewilding.

According to new research undertaken by 15 scientists from eight countries, wild animals are critical to controlling the carbon cycle on land and in water through actions like foraging, trampling, burrowing, seed dispersal, and ecological engineering.

“Wildlife species, throughout their interaction with the environment, are the missing link between biodiversity and climate,” said Oswald Schmitz, lead author of the study. “This interaction means rewilding can be among the best nature-based climate solutions available to humankind.”

The researchers examined nine wildlife species – marine fish, whales, sharks, gray wolves, wildebeest, sea otters, musk oxen, African forest elephants, and American bison – and found that protecting or restoring the populations of these animals could collectively allow the additional capture of 6.41 billion tons of carbon dioxide yearly. This represents 95% of the amount needed to meet the Paris Climate Agreement target to keep global warming below the 2.7 °F (1.5 °C) threshold.

They focused on larger animals because their ecological effects tend to be more pronounced. In addition, they’re more sensitive to human interference, habitat loss and alteration.

However, the dynamics of carbon uptake and storage depend on the presence of animals. With the world’s wildlife populations having declined by almost 70% in the last 50 years, the researchers found that pushing wild animal populations to the point of extinction could turn their ecosystems from carbon sinks to carbon sources.

The researchers recommend strengthening current animal recovery efforts and the introduction of legislation, policies and funding to aid the conservation of animals whose numbers have been reduced by human intervention.

They know that adopting a trophic rewilding approach to climate change will require a change in mindset.

“Supporting such efforts scientifically will require changes in the thinking and execution of research on Earth and ecosystem science to embrace and quantify animal controls on the entirety of the carbon cycle,” the researchers said. “It further requires a change in policy thinking to recognize that trophic rewilding can be an instrumental part of natural climate solutions. There is some urgency on both fronts because we are losing populations of many animal species just as we are discovering how much they functionally impact carbon capture and storage.”

The study was published in the journal Nature Climate Change.

Source: Yale University

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0 comments

Mammoths had long gestation periods and slow reproductive rates, making it difficult for their populations to recover from hunting losses
3.

Title:

Content: No. 4
December / 2022
Madagascar ’ s unique fauna under threat of destruction
Mouse lemur
It will take about 23 million years to recover.
An international team of scientists has created a dataset of all known mammal species that have been forced to coexist with humans in Madagascar for the past 2,500 years.
Using these results, the researchers built genetic genealogical trees to establish how all these species are related to each other and how long it took them to evolve from different common ancestors.
The findings made it possible to figure out how long it took for such a unique biodiversity to evolve, and thus estimate how long it would take evolution to actually replace all of the endangered mammals if they went extinct.
Humans have lived on the island, perhaps intermittently, for the last 10,000 years, but have definitely stayed there permanently for the last 2,500 years.
It turned out that it will take about three million years to restore the diversity of terrestrial mammals that have already become extinct in the last 2500 years, but this is not the last alarming conclusion of scientists.
About 90% of the plants and animals on the island are found nowhere else on Earth.
And these plants and animals have serious problems due to habitat loss, excessive hunting and climate change.
Of the 219 known mammal species on the island, including 109 lemur species, more than 120 are threatened with extinction.
Models have shown that it took about 23 million years for such a complex species diversity to emerge.
And this is the largest time period that has been found for any other island.
“It is clear that there are entire lineages of unique mammals found only in Madagascar that are either extinct or on the verge of extinction, and if no immediate action is taken, Madagascar will lose 23 million years of its evolutionary history, ” said Steve Goodman, co-author of the study at the Chicago Field Museum.
Madagascar is the fifth largest island in the world the size of France, but “in terms of all the diverse ecosystems present in Madagascar, it is no longer an island but a mini-continent, ” Goodman says.
In the 150 million years that have passed since Madagascar separated from mainland Africa, and the 80 million years that have passed since its paths diverged from India, plants and animals there have passed their own evolutionary path, being cut off from the rest of the world.
And this gene pool, combined with the richness of different types of habitats on the island, from mountain rainforests to lowland deserts, allowed mammals to split into different species much faster than their continental cousins.
But, according to scientists, for this incredible biodiversity has to pay.
On islands, evolution is faster, but extinction is also fast.
Small populations of creatures adapt to small and unique areas of habitat, but become vulnerable to any change in the environment.
More than half of Madagascar ’ s mammals are on the International Union for Conservation of Nature ’ s Red List of Endangered Species.
These animals are threatened with extinction primarily due to human actions over the past two hundred years, especially due to habitat destruction and excessive hunting.
“It was already known that Madagascar was a hotbed of biodiversity, but this new study shows how valuable this diversity is.
These findings highlight the potential benefits of conservation in Madagascar from a new evolutionary perspective, ” said Luis Valente, co-author of the study.
According to Goodman, urgent environmental work is complicated by inequality and political corruption that prevent most Malagasy people from making decisions about land use.
"Madagascar's biological crisis has nothing to do with biology.
It has to do with socio-economic issues.
But while the situation is terrible, we must not give up.
We have a responsibility to push this case as far as we can and try to make the world understand that we need to make a choice, now or never, ” Goodman said.

Title:

Content: No jokes about overindulging please, but an Austrian winemaker found three enormous mammoths while renovating his wine cellar.

Well, their bones.

Experts have called the find, in Gobelsburg, north west of Vienna, as the most significant of its kind in more than 100 years and an archaeological sensation.

In addition to adding to the catalogue of mammoth bones already discovered, the fact all three animals appear to be on top of each other could suggest they were caught in a trap. This could help answer a question that has long puzzled archaeologists – how did humans hunt these giant creatures?

The stunning find was made by Andreas Pernerstorfer, who discovered what he initially thought was a piece of wood while digging out the cellar. He reported the find to the Federal Monuments Office, which referred him to the Austrian Archaeological Institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW).

Around 150 years ago flint artefacts, jewellry fossils and charcoal were all found in an adjacent cellar, which were thought to be around 30,000 to 40,000 years old.

Archaeologists believe the layer of mammoth bones probably belonged to the same site.

They think the ‘significant bone layer’ contains the remains of at least three different mammoths.

‘Such a dense layer of bones is rare,’ said Hannah Parow-Souchon, who is leading the excavation. ‘It is the first time that we have been able to examine something like this in Austria using modern means – a unique opportunity for research.’

Mammoths: the lowdown

Mammoths are an extinct member of the elephantidae family, which includes modern-day elephants.

There were several species of mammoth, the most well-known of which is the woolly mammoth – which was also the smallest.

Mammoths evolved from the African mammoth, before spreading across Eurasia and North America.

The last mammoths, isolated groups of woolly mammoths, are thought to have gone extinct about 4,000 years ago.

However, work is ongoing to try to resurrect the species.

Researchers have long known that people in the Stone Age hunted mammoths, but exactly how they were able to take down the nine-tonne, three metre-high animals is unknown.

Now the team is investigating the site to try to determine did they simply die there, or did they fall into a trap set by locals?

If the answer is B, it will change our understanding of how Stone Age societies operated.

Once the dig is complete, the bones will be sent to the Natural History Museum in Vienna for restoration.

MORE : Unlucky worker accidentally snaps arm off famous Mexican mummy

MORE : Getting a tattoo could trigger blood cancer

MORE : Cases of most deadly skin cancer soar to an all-time high

How did humans contribute to the wooly mammoth extinction?

How did humans contribute to the wooly mammoth extinction?

As climate change was already stressing mammoth populations, hunting would have added additional pressure that the species could not withstand

## The Interplay Between Climate Change and Human Hunting

The extinction of the woolly mammoth was likely not caused by a single factor but rather by the combination of climate change and human hunting.

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?

This "double blow" scenario suggests that:

1.

Title:

Content: Meteor strike that wiped out dinosaurs sealed Ammonites’ fate

Ammonites were not in decline before their extinction, scientists have found.

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Researchers have discovered that ammonites did not experience a decline before their extinction.

These marine molluscs with coiled shells were one of palaeontology’s great icons and lived in Earth’s oceans for over 350 million years until they died during the same chance occurrence that wiped out the dinosaurs 66 million years ago.

Some experts in palaeontology have argued that their disappearance was unavoidable and that the diversity of Ammonites was diminishing long before they became extinct at the conclusion of the Cretaceous period.

However, new findings published in Nature Communications and led by palaeontologists at the University of Bristol demonstrate that their destiny was not predetermined. Instead, the final chapter in the evolutionary history of Ammonites is more complex.

“Understanding how and why biodiversity has changed through time is very challenging,” said lead author Dr Joseph Flannery-Sutherland. “The fossil record tells us some of the story, but it is often an unreliable narrator. Patterns of diversity can just reflect patterns of sampling, essentially where and when we have found new fossil species, rather than actual biological history.

“Analysing the existing Late Cretaceous ammonite fossil record as though it were the complete, global story is probably why previous researchers have thought they were in long-term ecological decline.”

In order to address this problem, the team compiled a new collection of Late Cretaceous ammonite fossils to help address the gaps in their data.

“We drew on museum collections to provide new sources of specimens rather than just relying on what had already been published,” said co-author Cameron Crossan, a 2023 graduate of the University of Bristol’s Palaeobiology MSc program. “This way, we could be sure that we were getting a more accurate picture of their biodiversity prior to their total extinction.”

Utilizing their database, the team proceeded to examine the variations in the rates of ammonite speciation and extinction in different regions of the world. If the extinction rates of the ammonites were higher than their speciation rates during the Late Cretaceous, it would indicate a decline in their population. However, the team discovered that the balance between speciation and extinction changed both through geological time and between different geographic regions.

“These differences in ammonoid diversification around the world is a crucial part of why their Late Cretaceous story has been misunderstood,” said senior author Dr James Witts of the Natural History Museum, London. “Their fossil record in parts of North America is very well sampled, but if you looked at this alone, you might think that they were struggling while actually flourishing in other regions. Their extinction really was a chance event and not an inevitable outcome.”

In order to determine the reasons behind the ongoing prosperity of ammonites during the Late Cretaceous period, the research group examined various factors that could have influenced changes in their diversity over time. Their focus was primarily on whether changes in speciation and extinction rates were primarily influenced by environmental factors such as ocean temperature and sea level (known as the Court Jester Hypothesis) or by biological mechanisms such as predation pressure and competition among the ammonites themselves (known as the Red Queen Hypothesis).

“What we found was that the causes of ammonite speciation and extinction were as geographically varied as the rates themselves,” said co-author Dr Corinne Myers of the University of New Mexico. “You couldn’t just look at their total fossil record and say that their diversity was driven entirely by changing temperature, for example. It was more complex than that and depended on where in the world they were living.”

“Palaeontologists are frequently fans of silver bullet narratives for what drove changes in a group’s fossil diversity, but our work shows that things are not always so straightforward,” Dr Flannery Sutherland concluded. “We can’t necessarily trust global fossil datasets and need to analyze them at regional scales. This way, we can capture a much more nuanced picture of how diversity changed across space and through time, which also shows how variation in the balance of Red Queen versus Court Jester effects shaped these changes.”

Journal reference:

  1. Joseph T. Flannery-Sutherland, Cameron D. Crossan, Corinne E. Myers, Austin J. W. Hendy, Neil H. Landman & James D. Witts. Late Cretaceous ammonoids show that drivers of diversification are regionally heterogeneous. Nature Communications, 2024; DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-49462-z

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Climate change during the end-Pleistocene reduced mammoth populations and fragmented their habitats
2.

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?

As mammoth numbers declined and became more concentrated in remaining suitable areas, they became more vulnerable to human hunters
3.

How did climate change affect mammoth' habitat?

How did humans contribute to the wooly mammoth extinction?

What are the causes of the wooly mammoth extinction?

Human hunting prevented the recovery of mammoth populations that were already stressed by environmental changes

This combination of factors created a situation from which the mammoth could not recover.

How did humans contribute to the wooly mammoth extinction?

What environmental factors contributed to the wooly mammoth extinction?

The Nature study mentioned earlier specifically noted that while climate change was the primary driver, humans also exerted additional pressure on these species through hunting.

Title:

Content: Overfishing And Degradation, Causes Of Decline Of Marine Ecosystems In South Atlantic Ocean In Recent Decades

By

The marine ecosystems of the South Atlantic Ocean have experienced a significant decline in recent decades due to overfishing and habitat degradation. This is demonstrated by a scientific study led by the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ICTA-UAB) that sheds light on the magnitude of human impact on these once thriving marine areas based on the archaeological analysis of fish remains from several sites in Brazil.

The indigenous communities that inhabited the southern coast of Brazil for thousands of years enjoyed abundant and diverse marine ecosystems teeming with large, high trophic level fish and top predators that played an important role in their food security in the past. This allowed their periodic exploitation by indigenous populations with simple fishing technology for thousands of years. After comparing the archaeological remains of fish species from the past with the present-day fish populations, the results show a significant decrease in many of the species, particularly sharks and rays, possibly linked to the escalating human impacts, such as overfishing and habitat degradation in recent decades.

Thiago Fossile, lead author and researcher at ICTA-UAB and the UAB Department of Prehistory, emphasizes the growing anthropogenic pressures faced by aquatic fauna in Brazil, a country known for its stunning beaches and diverse wildlife. “Many species documented in archaeological sites are now endangered, while for other species there is insufficient data on their distribution and abundance. By using archaeological data, we can gain insight into these lost environments and can redefine conservation baselines”.

André Colonese, senior author of the study and researcher at ICTA-UAB and the Department of Prehistory at UAB, highlights the importance of coastal and marine ecosystems in sustaining subsistence fisheries for thousands of years along the Brazilian coast. “Hundreds of archaeological sites provide valuable information on past biodiversity, contributing to discussions on fisheries management and conservation. This study, published in PLoS ONE, emphasizes the significance of incorporating archaeological data into conservation debates in Brazil, enhancing the discipline’s relevance to environmental issues”.

For Mariana Bender, co-author from the Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, the study offers a new perspective into the understanding of the exploitation of fish biodiversity through time. “It is amazing what archeological sites can tell us relative to the impacts of ancient human populations on fish biodiversity. Looking at fish characteristics we found evidence that large top predators have long been exploited and recent fisheries have moved towards lower trophic levels. This process is not recent, but instead, has been in place for thousands of years”, she says.

Co-author Dione Bandeira of the Universidade da Região de Joinville (Brazil) explained that “Indigenous environmental stewardship serves as a model for sustainable resource utilization and plays a crucial role in conserving biodiversity in tropical and subtropical regions of South America. Additionally, studies focusing on archaeological faunal remains provide valuable insights into the origins and evolution of these enduring practices”.

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

How did humans contribute to the wooly mammoth extinction?

What environmental factors contributed to the wooly mammoth extinction?

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

How did humans contribute to the wooly mammoth extinction?

What environmental factors contributed to the wooly mammoth extinction?

## Biological Vulnerabilities of Megafauna

The extinction of mammoths also highlights the particular vulnerabilities of large animals (megafauna) to environmental changes and human pressure:

- Large animals have longer gestation periods and take more time to reach sexual maturity, making population recovery slower
- They require larger territories and more food resources, making them more sensitive to habitat fragmentation
- Their size makes them more noticeable targets for human hunters

As one document explains, larger animals are "more sensitive to human interference, habitat loss and alteration.

How did humans contribute to the wooly mammoth extinction?

How did humans contribute to the wooly mammoth extinction?

" This sensitivity would have made mammoths particularly vulnerable to the combined pressures of climate change and human hunting.

Title:

Content: The formation of a new supercontinent will lead to irreversible consequences on the planet – scientists
22: 38, Today
Extreme climatic phenomena will sharply worsen when the continents will unite into one hot, dry and practically uninhabitable super climate.
Supercomputer modeling of the climate future involves the destruction of all mammals.
This conclusion was made by researchers from the University of Bristol (UK).
Its results are published in the journal Nature Geoscience.
According to the researchers, extreme climatic events will sharply worsen when the continents in 250 million years will unite into one hot, dry and practically uninhabitable supercontinent.
Scientists simulated changes in temperature, wind, rain and humidity for the next supercontinent, Pangaea Ultima, which is expected to form in the next 250 million years.
To estimate the absorption and release of carbon dioxide, scientists used models of plate tectonic motion, ocean chemistry, and biology.
The results of the simulations show that the temperature on Earth will rise as the Sun becomes brighter, emitting more energy and heating the planet.
The second factor affecting the climate will be increased volcanic activity.
Tectonic processes associated with the formation of the supercontinent will lead to more frequent volcanic eruptions and greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere.
Although anthropogenic climate change and global warming are likely to become a growing cause of heat stress and mortality in some regions, research suggests that the planet will largely remain habitable until seismic land changes occur in the distant future.
But when the supercontinent is formed, only 8% to 16% of the land on it will be suitable for mammals.
According to scientists, the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by the time of the formation of the supercontinent will rise by 1.5 times.
On most land, the temperature will be from 40 to 50 °, while there will be a high level of humidity.
Mammals, including humans, survived and became the dominant species due to their ability to adapt to extremely cold weather conditions, especially through adaptations such as fur and hibernation in the cold, as well as short periods of hibernation in warm weather.
The tolerance of mammals to high temperatures was not generally formed.
Therefore, it is much more difficult for our animal class to overcome the prolonged effects of excessive heat.
The researchers emphasize that under natural conditions, such changes will lead to the complete or almost complete extinction of mammals, and the planet that remains in the “living zone ” will become unsuitable for human life.
As reported by Cursor, NASA experts have shown that the level of the world ’ s oceans is growing faster than expected, and that, most likely, in the coming decades, it will rise by at least 90 centimeters.
If this trend – due to global warming – continues, in the future the Earth may be left in principle without permanent ice.
Kursor also reported that due to global warming, the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East are warming almost twice as fast as the global average.
Author of the material
TAGS:

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?

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?

## Lessons for Modern Conservation

The extinction of the woolly mammoth offers important lessons for understanding current biodiversity loss and conservation challenges:

1.

Title:

Content: ADVERTISING

TECHNOLOGY

CIA wants to revive prehistoric species such as the woolly mammoth

The CIA is funding a project that aims to revive iconic species like the woolly mammoth and Tasmanian tiger, but it’s not good news.

The CIA has become the latest investor in Colossal Biosciences, a genetic engineering company that wants to revive iconic species of the past, such as the woolly mammoth and Tasmanian tiger. According to LiveScience, reports indicate that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency is funding research into the ‘resuscitation’ of extinct prehistoric species.

Through a venture capital investment firm called In-Q-Tel, which is funded by the CIA, the government agency has made a financial commitment to Texas-based Colossal Biosciences. The latter’s official website explains that its goal is to “see the woolly mammoth thunder over the tundra once again” by combining “genetic science with the business of discovery.”

ADVERTISING - CONTINUE READING BELOW

According to the In-Q-Tel blog, investing in the project will help the U.S. government “set the ethical standards” for genetic engineering technology and keep the country at the forefront of nations that may also be interested in engineered genetic code modification research.

Reviving prehistoric creatures

Colossal Biosciences appears to be interested in bringing back various prehistoric animals, such as the woolly mammoth that inhabited Arctic regions from North America to Siberia and became extinct at the end of the Pleistocene due to the disappearance of its natural habitat.

ADVERTISING - CONTINUE READING BELOW

But the interest in reviving species also includes others such as the Dodo bird, which disappeared from the Earth at the end of the 17th century due to human causes. The Tasmanian tiger is another animal that Colossal has its sights set on; this species became extinct in the 20th century, also due to anthropological causes.

Is it feasible to bring the species back?

Genetic engineering has been used in the past for nature conservation, but only cloning has been used as a measure to prevent species from becoming extinct forever. Genes have been taken from captive-bred specimens for cloning and then reintroduced into the wild.

ADVERTISING - CONTINUE READING BELOW

So far, genetic modification using the CRISPR addition technique, which is used to ‘copy, paste and replace’ specific gene sequences in DNA, is not a tool that has been used for nature conservation, and many have warned about the dangers this would bring.

The woolly mammoth, for example, lived in the ice age when temperatures were much lower than they are now. It became extinct due to climate change that wiped out its natural habitat, so the thought of reviving it brings with it an inherent ethical debate that cannot be ignored.

ADVERTISING - CONTINUE READING BELOW

In any case, the large amounts of money that the CIA intends to invest in resuscitating the woolly mammoth and other ancient species could be used for the conservation of species that are currently in danger of disappearing. However, it seems that beyond an animalistic objective, the agency seems to have a special interest in genetic modification, an area that is increasingly growing and completely lacks ethical and professional guidelines.

Story originally published in Spanish in Ecoosfera

ADVERTISING - CONTINUE READING BELOW
Podría interesarte
ADVERTISING
ADVERTISING

**Combined Threats**: Just as mammoths faced multiple simultaneous threats (climate change and hunting), many modern species are facing the combined pressures of habitat loss, climate change, and human exploitation.

Title:

Content: Overfishing And Degradation, Causes Of Decline Of Marine Ecosystems In South Atlantic Ocean In Recent Decades

By

The marine ecosystems of the South Atlantic Ocean have experienced a significant decline in recent decades due to overfishing and habitat degradation. This is demonstrated by a scientific study led by the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ICTA-UAB) that sheds light on the magnitude of human impact on these once thriving marine areas based on the archaeological analysis of fish remains from several sites in Brazil.

The indigenous communities that inhabited the southern coast of Brazil for thousands of years enjoyed abundant and diverse marine ecosystems teeming with large, high trophic level fish and top predators that played an important role in their food security in the past. This allowed their periodic exploitation by indigenous populations with simple fishing technology for thousands of years. After comparing the archaeological remains of fish species from the past with the present-day fish populations, the results show a significant decrease in many of the species, particularly sharks and rays, possibly linked to the escalating human impacts, such as overfishing and habitat degradation in recent decades.

Thiago Fossile, lead author and researcher at ICTA-UAB and the UAB Department of Prehistory, emphasizes the growing anthropogenic pressures faced by aquatic fauna in Brazil, a country known for its stunning beaches and diverse wildlife. “Many species documented in archaeological sites are now endangered, while for other species there is insufficient data on their distribution and abundance. By using archaeological data, we can gain insight into these lost environments and can redefine conservation baselines”.

André Colonese, senior author of the study and researcher at ICTA-UAB and the Department of Prehistory at UAB, highlights the importance of coastal and marine ecosystems in sustaining subsistence fisheries for thousands of years along the Brazilian coast. “Hundreds of archaeological sites provide valuable information on past biodiversity, contributing to discussions on fisheries management and conservation. This study, published in PLoS ONE, emphasizes the significance of incorporating archaeological data into conservation debates in Brazil, enhancing the discipline’s relevance to environmental issues”.

For Mariana Bender, co-author from the Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, the study offers a new perspective into the understanding of the exploitation of fish biodiversity through time. “It is amazing what archeological sites can tell us relative to the impacts of ancient human populations on fish biodiversity. Looking at fish characteristics we found evidence that large top predators have long been exploited and recent fisheries have moved towards lower trophic levels. This process is not recent, but instead, has been in place for thousands of years”, she says.

Co-author Dione Bandeira of the Universidade da Região de Joinville (Brazil) explained that “Indigenous environmental stewardship serves as a model for sustainable resource utilization and plays a crucial role in conserving biodiversity in tropical and subtropical regions of South America. Additionally, studies focusing on archaeological faunal remains provide valuable insights into the origins and evolution of these enduring practices”.

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?

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?

**Slow Reproduction**: Species with slow reproductive rates, like mammoths, are particularly vulnerable to extinction when faced with additional pressures.

This is relevant to many modern large mammals such as elephants and rhinos.

**Habitat Transformation**: The transformation of mammoth habitats from open grasslands to forests demonstrates how climate change can alter ecosystems in ways that make them unsuitable for specialized species.

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?

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?

**Human Impact**: The role of human hunting in mammoth extinction illustrates how even relatively small human populations can have significant impacts on large animal species.

Title:

Content: No jokes about overindulging please, but an Austrian winemaker found three enormous mammoths while renovating his wine cellar.

Well, their bones.

Experts have called the find, in Gobelsburg, north west of Vienna, as the most significant of its kind in more than 100 years and an archaeological sensation.

In addition to adding to the catalogue of mammoth bones already discovered, the fact all three animals appear to be on top of each other could suggest they were caught in a trap. This could help answer a question that has long puzzled archaeologists – how did humans hunt these giant creatures?

The stunning find was made by Andreas Pernerstorfer, who discovered what he initially thought was a piece of wood while digging out the cellar. He reported the find to the Federal Monuments Office, which referred him to the Austrian Archaeological Institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW).

Around 150 years ago flint artefacts, jewellry fossils and charcoal were all found in an adjacent cellar, which were thought to be around 30,000 to 40,000 years old.

Archaeologists believe the layer of mammoth bones probably belonged to the same site.

They think the ‘significant bone layer’ contains the remains of at least three different mammoths.

‘Such a dense layer of bones is rare,’ said Hannah Parow-Souchon, who is leading the excavation. ‘It is the first time that we have been able to examine something like this in Austria using modern means – a unique opportunity for research.’

Mammoths: the lowdown

Mammoths are an extinct member of the elephantidae family, which includes modern-day elephants.

There were several species of mammoth, the most well-known of which is the woolly mammoth – which was also the smallest.

Mammoths evolved from the African mammoth, before spreading across Eurasia and North America.

The last mammoths, isolated groups of woolly mammoths, are thought to have gone extinct about 4,000 years ago.

However, work is ongoing to try to resurrect the species.

Researchers have long known that people in the Stone Age hunted mammoths, but exactly how they were able to take down the nine-tonne, three metre-high animals is unknown.

Now the team is investigating the site to try to determine did they simply die there, or did they fall into a trap set by locals?

If the answer is B, it will change our understanding of how Stone Age societies operated.

Once the dig is complete, the bones will be sent to the Natural History Museum in Vienna for restoration.

MORE : Unlucky worker accidentally snaps arm off famous Mexican mummy

MORE : Getting a tattoo could trigger blood cancer

MORE : Cases of most deadly skin cancer soar to an all-time high

How did humans contribute to the wooly mammoth extinction?

What are the causes of the wooly mammoth extinction?

How did humans contribute to the wooly mammoth extinction?

What are the causes of the wooly mammoth extinction?

The current biodiversity crisis, with wildlife populations having declined by almost 70% in the last 50 years and one million plant and animal species at risk of extinction, mirrors the pressures that led to the mammoth's extinction, but on a much larger scale and at a much faster pace.

## De-extinction Efforts and Ethical Considerations

Interestingly, there are ongoing efforts to resurrect the woolly mammoth through genetic engineering.

Title:

Content: No jokes about overindulging please, but an Austrian winemaker found three enormous mammoths while renovating his wine cellar.

Well, their bones.

Experts have called the find, in Gobelsburg, north west of Vienna, as the most significant of its kind in more than 100 years and an archaeological sensation.

In addition to adding to the catalogue of mammoth bones already discovered, the fact all three animals appear to be on top of each other could suggest they were caught in a trap. This could help answer a question that has long puzzled archaeologists – how did humans hunt these giant creatures?

The stunning find was made by Andreas Pernerstorfer, who discovered what he initially thought was a piece of wood while digging out the cellar. He reported the find to the Federal Monuments Office, which referred him to the Austrian Archaeological Institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW).

Around 150 years ago flint artefacts, jewellry fossils and charcoal were all found in an adjacent cellar, which were thought to be around 30,000 to 40,000 years old.

Archaeologists believe the layer of mammoth bones probably belonged to the same site.

They think the ‘significant bone layer’ contains the remains of at least three different mammoths.

‘Such a dense layer of bones is rare,’ said Hannah Parow-Souchon, who is leading the excavation. ‘It is the first time that we have been able to examine something like this in Austria using modern means – a unique opportunity for research.’

Mammoths: the lowdown

Mammoths are an extinct member of the elephantidae family, which includes modern-day elephants.

There were several species of mammoth, the most well-known of which is the woolly mammoth – which was also the smallest.

Mammoths evolved from the African mammoth, before spreading across Eurasia and North America.

The last mammoths, isolated groups of woolly mammoths, are thought to have gone extinct about 4,000 years ago.

However, work is ongoing to try to resurrect the species.

Researchers have long known that people in the Stone Age hunted mammoths, but exactly how they were able to take down the nine-tonne, three metre-high animals is unknown.

Now the team is investigating the site to try to determine did they simply die there, or did they fall into a trap set by locals?

If the answer is B, it will change our understanding of how Stone Age societies operated.

Once the dig is complete, the bones will be sent to the Natural History Museum in Vienna for restoration.

MORE : Unlucky worker accidentally snaps arm off famous Mexican mummy

MORE : Getting a tattoo could trigger blood cancer

MORE : Cases of most deadly skin cancer soar to an all-time high

Title:

Content: ADVERTISING

TECHNOLOGY

CIA wants to revive prehistoric species such as the woolly mammoth

The CIA is funding a project that aims to revive iconic species like the woolly mammoth and Tasmanian tiger, but it’s not good news.

The CIA has become the latest investor in Colossal Biosciences, a genetic engineering company that wants to revive iconic species of the past, such as the woolly mammoth and Tasmanian tiger. According to LiveScience, reports indicate that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency is funding research into the ‘resuscitation’ of extinct prehistoric species.

Through a venture capital investment firm called In-Q-Tel, which is funded by the CIA, the government agency has made a financial commitment to Texas-based Colossal Biosciences. The latter’s official website explains that its goal is to “see the woolly mammoth thunder over the tundra once again” by combining “genetic science with the business of discovery.”

ADVERTISING - CONTINUE READING BELOW

According to the In-Q-Tel blog, investing in the project will help the U.S. government “set the ethical standards” for genetic engineering technology and keep the country at the forefront of nations that may also be interested in engineered genetic code modification research.

Reviving prehistoric creatures

Colossal Biosciences appears to be interested in bringing back various prehistoric animals, such as the woolly mammoth that inhabited Arctic regions from North America to Siberia and became extinct at the end of the Pleistocene due to the disappearance of its natural habitat.

ADVERTISING - CONTINUE READING BELOW

But the interest in reviving species also includes others such as the Dodo bird, which disappeared from the Earth at the end of the 17th century due to human causes. The Tasmanian tiger is another animal that Colossal has its sights set on; this species became extinct in the 20th century, also due to anthropological causes.

Is it feasible to bring the species back?

Genetic engineering has been used in the past for nature conservation, but only cloning has been used as a measure to prevent species from becoming extinct forever. Genes have been taken from captive-bred specimens for cloning and then reintroduced into the wild.

ADVERTISING - CONTINUE READING BELOW

So far, genetic modification using the CRISPR addition technique, which is used to ‘copy, paste and replace’ specific gene sequences in DNA, is not a tool that has been used for nature conservation, and many have warned about the dangers this would bring.

The woolly mammoth, for example, lived in the ice age when temperatures were much lower than they are now. It became extinct due to climate change that wiped out its natural habitat, so the thought of reviving it brings with it an inherent ethical debate that cannot be ignored.

ADVERTISING - CONTINUE READING BELOW

In any case, the large amounts of money that the CIA intends to invest in resuscitating the woolly mammoth and other ancient species could be used for the conservation of species that are currently in danger of disappearing. However, it seems that beyond an animalistic objective, the agency seems to have a special interest in genetic modification, an area that is increasingly growing and completely lacks ethical and professional guidelines.

Story originally published in Spanish in Ecoosfera

ADVERTISING - CONTINUE READING BELOW
Podría interesarte
ADVERTISING
ADVERTISING

However, these efforts raise important questions about resource allocation and ecological ethics:

- Should substantial resources be devoted to resurrecting extinct species when so many living species are currently threatened with extinction?

Title:

Content: No jokes about overindulging please, but an Austrian winemaker found three enormous mammoths while renovating his wine cellar.

Well, their bones.

Experts have called the find, in Gobelsburg, north west of Vienna, as the most significant of its kind in more than 100 years and an archaeological sensation.

In addition to adding to the catalogue of mammoth bones already discovered, the fact all three animals appear to be on top of each other could suggest they were caught in a trap. This could help answer a question that has long puzzled archaeologists – how did humans hunt these giant creatures?

The stunning find was made by Andreas Pernerstorfer, who discovered what he initially thought was a piece of wood while digging out the cellar. He reported the find to the Federal Monuments Office, which referred him to the Austrian Archaeological Institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW).

Around 150 years ago flint artefacts, jewellry fossils and charcoal were all found in an adjacent cellar, which were thought to be around 30,000 to 40,000 years old.

Archaeologists believe the layer of mammoth bones probably belonged to the same site.

They think the ‘significant bone layer’ contains the remains of at least three different mammoths.

‘Such a dense layer of bones is rare,’ said Hannah Parow-Souchon, who is leading the excavation. ‘It is the first time that we have been able to examine something like this in Austria using modern means – a unique opportunity for research.’

Mammoths: the lowdown

Mammoths are an extinct member of the elephantidae family, which includes modern-day elephants.

There were several species of mammoth, the most well-known of which is the woolly mammoth – which was also the smallest.

Mammoths evolved from the African mammoth, before spreading across Eurasia and North America.

The last mammoths, isolated groups of woolly mammoths, are thought to have gone extinct about 4,000 years ago.

However, work is ongoing to try to resurrect the species.

Researchers have long known that people in the Stone Age hunted mammoths, but exactly how they were able to take down the nine-tonne, three metre-high animals is unknown.

Now the team is investigating the site to try to determine did they simply die there, or did they fall into a trap set by locals?

If the answer is B, it will change our understanding of how Stone Age societies operated.

Once the dig is complete, the bones will be sent to the Natural History Museum in Vienna for restoration.

MORE : Unlucky worker accidentally snaps arm off famous Mexican mummy

MORE : Getting a tattoo could trigger blood cancer

MORE : Cases of most deadly skin cancer soar to an all-time high

Title:

Content: ADVERTISING

TECHNOLOGY

CIA wants to revive prehistoric species such as the woolly mammoth

The CIA is funding a project that aims to revive iconic species like the woolly mammoth and Tasmanian tiger, but it’s not good news.

The CIA has become the latest investor in Colossal Biosciences, a genetic engineering company that wants to revive iconic species of the past, such as the woolly mammoth and Tasmanian tiger. According to LiveScience, reports indicate that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency is funding research into the ‘resuscitation’ of extinct prehistoric species.

Through a venture capital investment firm called In-Q-Tel, which is funded by the CIA, the government agency has made a financial commitment to Texas-based Colossal Biosciences. The latter’s official website explains that its goal is to “see the woolly mammoth thunder over the tundra once again” by combining “genetic science with the business of discovery.”

ADVERTISING - CONTINUE READING BELOW

According to the In-Q-Tel blog, investing in the project will help the U.S. government “set the ethical standards” for genetic engineering technology and keep the country at the forefront of nations that may also be interested in engineered genetic code modification research.

Reviving prehistoric creatures

Colossal Biosciences appears to be interested in bringing back various prehistoric animals, such as the woolly mammoth that inhabited Arctic regions from North America to Siberia and became extinct at the end of the Pleistocene due to the disappearance of its natural habitat.

ADVERTISING - CONTINUE READING BELOW

But the interest in reviving species also includes others such as the Dodo bird, which disappeared from the Earth at the end of the 17th century due to human causes. The Tasmanian tiger is another animal that Colossal has its sights set on; this species became extinct in the 20th century, also due to anthropological causes.

Is it feasible to bring the species back?

Genetic engineering has been used in the past for nature conservation, but only cloning has been used as a measure to prevent species from becoming extinct forever. Genes have been taken from captive-bred specimens for cloning and then reintroduced into the wild.

ADVERTISING - CONTINUE READING BELOW

So far, genetic modification using the CRISPR addition technique, which is used to ‘copy, paste and replace’ specific gene sequences in DNA, is not a tool that has been used for nature conservation, and many have warned about the dangers this would bring.

The woolly mammoth, for example, lived in the ice age when temperatures were much lower than they are now. It became extinct due to climate change that wiped out its natural habitat, so the thought of reviving it brings with it an inherent ethical debate that cannot be ignored.

ADVERTISING - CONTINUE READING BELOW

In any case, the large amounts of money that the CIA intends to invest in resuscitating the woolly mammoth and other ancient species could be used for the conservation of species that are currently in danger of disappearing. However, it seems that beyond an animalistic objective, the agency seems to have a special interest in genetic modification, an area that is increasingly growing and completely lacks ethical and professional guidelines.

Story originally published in Spanish in Ecoosfera

ADVERTISING - CONTINUE READING BELOW
Podría interesarte
ADVERTISING
ADVERTISING

- What would be the ecological consequences of reintroducing a species like the mammoth into ecosystems that have significantly changed since its extinction?

Title:

Content: No jokes about overindulging please, but an Austrian winemaker found three enormous mammoths while renovating his wine cellar.

Well, their bones.

Experts have called the find, in Gobelsburg, north west of Vienna, as the most significant of its kind in more than 100 years and an archaeological sensation.

In addition to adding to the catalogue of mammoth bones already discovered, the fact all three animals appear to be on top of each other could suggest they were caught in a trap. This could help answer a question that has long puzzled archaeologists – how did humans hunt these giant creatures?

The stunning find was made by Andreas Pernerstorfer, who discovered what he initially thought was a piece of wood while digging out the cellar. He reported the find to the Federal Monuments Office, which referred him to the Austrian Archaeological Institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW).

Around 150 years ago flint artefacts, jewellry fossils and charcoal were all found in an adjacent cellar, which were thought to be around 30,000 to 40,000 years old.

Archaeologists believe the layer of mammoth bones probably belonged to the same site.

They think the ‘significant bone layer’ contains the remains of at least three different mammoths.

‘Such a dense layer of bones is rare,’ said Hannah Parow-Souchon, who is leading the excavation. ‘It is the first time that we have been able to examine something like this in Austria using modern means – a unique opportunity for research.’

Mammoths: the lowdown

Mammoths are an extinct member of the elephantidae family, which includes modern-day elephants.

There were several species of mammoth, the most well-known of which is the woolly mammoth – which was also the smallest.

Mammoths evolved from the African mammoth, before spreading across Eurasia and North America.

The last mammoths, isolated groups of woolly mammoths, are thought to have gone extinct about 4,000 years ago.

However, work is ongoing to try to resurrect the species.

Researchers have long known that people in the Stone Age hunted mammoths, but exactly how they were able to take down the nine-tonne, three metre-high animals is unknown.

Now the team is investigating the site to try to determine did they simply die there, or did they fall into a trap set by locals?

If the answer is B, it will change our understanding of how Stone Age societies operated.

Once the dig is complete, the bones will be sent to the Natural History Museum in Vienna for restoration.

MORE : Unlucky worker accidentally snaps arm off famous Mexican mummy

MORE : Getting a tattoo could trigger blood cancer

MORE : Cases of most deadly skin cancer soar to an all-time high

- How might the technology developed for de-extinction be used responsibly?

As one document notes, "de-extinction research requires substantial resources, both in terms of funding and scientific expertise.

Title:

Content: ADVERTISING

TECHNOLOGY

CIA wants to revive prehistoric species such as the woolly mammoth

The CIA is funding a project that aims to revive iconic species like the woolly mammoth and Tasmanian tiger, but it’s not good news.

The CIA has become the latest investor in Colossal Biosciences, a genetic engineering company that wants to revive iconic species of the past, such as the woolly mammoth and Tasmanian tiger. According to LiveScience, reports indicate that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency is funding research into the ‘resuscitation’ of extinct prehistoric species.

Through a venture capital investment firm called In-Q-Tel, which is funded by the CIA, the government agency has made a financial commitment to Texas-based Colossal Biosciences. The latter’s official website explains that its goal is to “see the woolly mammoth thunder over the tundra once again” by combining “genetic science with the business of discovery.”

ADVERTISING - CONTINUE READING BELOW

According to the In-Q-Tel blog, investing in the project will help the U.S. government “set the ethical standards” for genetic engineering technology and keep the country at the forefront of nations that may also be interested in engineered genetic code modification research.

Reviving prehistoric creatures

Colossal Biosciences appears to be interested in bringing back various prehistoric animals, such as the woolly mammoth that inhabited Arctic regions from North America to Siberia and became extinct at the end of the Pleistocene due to the disappearance of its natural habitat.

ADVERTISING - CONTINUE READING BELOW

But the interest in reviving species also includes others such as the Dodo bird, which disappeared from the Earth at the end of the 17th century due to human causes. The Tasmanian tiger is another animal that Colossal has its sights set on; this species became extinct in the 20th century, also due to anthropological causes.

Is it feasible to bring the species back?

Genetic engineering has been used in the past for nature conservation, but only cloning has been used as a measure to prevent species from becoming extinct forever. Genes have been taken from captive-bred specimens for cloning and then reintroduced into the wild.

ADVERTISING - CONTINUE READING BELOW

So far, genetic modification using the CRISPR addition technique, which is used to ‘copy, paste and replace’ specific gene sequences in DNA, is not a tool that has been used for nature conservation, and many have warned about the dangers this would bring.

The woolly mammoth, for example, lived in the ice age when temperatures were much lower than they are now. It became extinct due to climate change that wiped out its natural habitat, so the thought of reviving it brings with it an inherent ethical debate that cannot be ignored.

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In any case, the large amounts of money that the CIA intends to invest in resuscitating the woolly mammoth and other ancient species could be used for the conservation of species that are currently in danger of disappearing. However, it seems that beyond an animalistic objective, the agency seems to have a special interest in genetic modification, an area that is increasingly growing and completely lacks ethical and professional guidelines.

Story originally published in Spanish in Ecoosfera

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Critics argue that these resources could be better utilized for conserving endangered species and protecting existing biodiversity.

Title:

Content: ADVERTISING

TECHNOLOGY

CIA wants to revive prehistoric species such as the woolly mammoth

The CIA is funding a project that aims to revive iconic species like the woolly mammoth and Tasmanian tiger, but it’s not good news.

The CIA has become the latest investor in Colossal Biosciences, a genetic engineering company that wants to revive iconic species of the past, such as the woolly mammoth and Tasmanian tiger. According to LiveScience, reports indicate that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency is funding research into the ‘resuscitation’ of extinct prehistoric species.

Through a venture capital investment firm called In-Q-Tel, which is funded by the CIA, the government agency has made a financial commitment to Texas-based Colossal Biosciences. The latter’s official website explains that its goal is to “see the woolly mammoth thunder over the tundra once again” by combining “genetic science with the business of discovery.”

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According to the In-Q-Tel blog, investing in the project will help the U.S. government “set the ethical standards” for genetic engineering technology and keep the country at the forefront of nations that may also be interested in engineered genetic code modification research.

Reviving prehistoric creatures

Colossal Biosciences appears to be interested in bringing back various prehistoric animals, such as the woolly mammoth that inhabited Arctic regions from North America to Siberia and became extinct at the end of the Pleistocene due to the disappearance of its natural habitat.

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But the interest in reviving species also includes others such as the Dodo bird, which disappeared from the Earth at the end of the 17th century due to human causes. The Tasmanian tiger is another animal that Colossal has its sights set on; this species became extinct in the 20th century, also due to anthropological causes.

Is it feasible to bring the species back?

Genetic engineering has been used in the past for nature conservation, but only cloning has been used as a measure to prevent species from becoming extinct forever. Genes have been taken from captive-bred specimens for cloning and then reintroduced into the wild.

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So far, genetic modification using the CRISPR addition technique, which is used to ‘copy, paste and replace’ specific gene sequences in DNA, is not a tool that has been used for nature conservation, and many have warned about the dangers this would bring.

The woolly mammoth, for example, lived in the ice age when temperatures were much lower than they are now. It became extinct due to climate change that wiped out its natural habitat, so the thought of reviving it brings with it an inherent ethical debate that cannot be ignored.

ADVERTISING - CONTINUE READING BELOW

In any case, the large amounts of money that the CIA intends to invest in resuscitating the woolly mammoth and other ancient species could be used for the conservation of species that are currently in danger of disappearing. However, it seems that beyond an animalistic objective, the agency seems to have a special interest in genetic modification, an area that is increasingly growing and completely lacks ethical and professional guidelines.

Story originally published in Spanish in Ecoosfera

ADVERTISING - CONTINUE READING BELOW
Podría interesarte
ADVERTISING
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"

## Conclusion

The extinction of the woolly mammoth represents a complex interplay between natural climate change and human hunting pressure.

Title:

Content: No jokes about overindulging please, but an Austrian winemaker found three enormous mammoths while renovating his wine cellar.

Well, their bones.

Experts have called the find, in Gobelsburg, north west of Vienna, as the most significant of its kind in more than 100 years and an archaeological sensation.

In addition to adding to the catalogue of mammoth bones already discovered, the fact all three animals appear to be on top of each other could suggest they were caught in a trap. This could help answer a question that has long puzzled archaeologists – how did humans hunt these giant creatures?

The stunning find was made by Andreas Pernerstorfer, who discovered what he initially thought was a piece of wood while digging out the cellar. He reported the find to the Federal Monuments Office, which referred him to the Austrian Archaeological Institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW).

Around 150 years ago flint artefacts, jewellry fossils and charcoal were all found in an adjacent cellar, which were thought to be around 30,000 to 40,000 years old.

Archaeologists believe the layer of mammoth bones probably belonged to the same site.

They think the ‘significant bone layer’ contains the remains of at least three different mammoths.

‘Such a dense layer of bones is rare,’ said Hannah Parow-Souchon, who is leading the excavation. ‘It is the first time that we have been able to examine something like this in Austria using modern means – a unique opportunity for research.’

Mammoths: the lowdown

Mammoths are an extinct member of the elephantidae family, which includes modern-day elephants.

There were several species of mammoth, the most well-known of which is the woolly mammoth – which was also the smallest.

Mammoths evolved from the African mammoth, before spreading across Eurasia and North America.

The last mammoths, isolated groups of woolly mammoths, are thought to have gone extinct about 4,000 years ago.

However, work is ongoing to try to resurrect the species.

Researchers have long known that people in the Stone Age hunted mammoths, but exactly how they were able to take down the nine-tonne, three metre-high animals is unknown.

Now the team is investigating the site to try to determine did they simply die there, or did they fall into a trap set by locals?

If the answer is B, it will change our understanding of how Stone Age societies operated.

Once the dig is complete, the bones will be sent to the Natural History Museum in Vienna for restoration.

MORE : Unlucky worker accidentally snaps arm off famous Mexican mummy

MORE : Getting a tattoo could trigger blood cancer

MORE : Cases of most deadly skin cancer soar to an all-time high

How did humans contribute to the wooly mammoth extinction?

What environmental factors contributed to the wooly mammoth extinction?

How did humans contribute to the wooly mammoth extinction?

What environmental factors contributed to the wooly mammoth extinction?

While environmental changes at the end of the last Ice Age created challenging conditions for mammoths, human activities likely prevented their adaptation and survival.

Title:

Content: The formation of a new supercontinent will lead to irreversible consequences on the planet – scientists
22: 38, Today
Extreme climatic phenomena will sharply worsen when the continents will unite into one hot, dry and practically uninhabitable super climate.
Supercomputer modeling of the climate future involves the destruction of all mammals.
This conclusion was made by researchers from the University of Bristol (UK).
Its results are published in the journal Nature Geoscience.
According to the researchers, extreme climatic events will sharply worsen when the continents in 250 million years will unite into one hot, dry and practically uninhabitable supercontinent.
Scientists simulated changes in temperature, wind, rain and humidity for the next supercontinent, Pangaea Ultima, which is expected to form in the next 250 million years.
To estimate the absorption and release of carbon dioxide, scientists used models of plate tectonic motion, ocean chemistry, and biology.
The results of the simulations show that the temperature on Earth will rise as the Sun becomes brighter, emitting more energy and heating the planet.
The second factor affecting the climate will be increased volcanic activity.
Tectonic processes associated with the formation of the supercontinent will lead to more frequent volcanic eruptions and greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere.
Although anthropogenic climate change and global warming are likely to become a growing cause of heat stress and mortality in some regions, research suggests that the planet will largely remain habitable until seismic land changes occur in the distant future.
But when the supercontinent is formed, only 8% to 16% of the land on it will be suitable for mammals.
According to scientists, the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by the time of the formation of the supercontinent will rise by 1.5 times.
On most land, the temperature will be from 40 to 50 °, while there will be a high level of humidity.
Mammals, including humans, survived and became the dominant species due to their ability to adapt to extremely cold weather conditions, especially through adaptations such as fur and hibernation in the cold, as well as short periods of hibernation in warm weather.
The tolerance of mammals to high temperatures was not generally formed.
Therefore, it is much more difficult for our animal class to overcome the prolonged effects of excessive heat.
The researchers emphasize that under natural conditions, such changes will lead to the complete or almost complete extinction of mammals, and the planet that remains in the “living zone ” will become unsuitable for human life.
As reported by Cursor, NASA experts have shown that the level of the world ’ s oceans is growing faster than expected, and that, most likely, in the coming decades, it will rise by at least 90 centimeters.
If this trend – due to global warming – continues, in the future the Earth may be left in principle without permanent ice.
Kursor also reported that due to global warming, the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East are warming almost twice as fast as the global average.
Author of the material
TAGS:

Title:

Content: No jokes about overindulging please, but an Austrian winemaker found three enormous mammoths while renovating his wine cellar.

Well, their bones.

Experts have called the find, in Gobelsburg, north west of Vienna, as the most significant of its kind in more than 100 years and an archaeological sensation.

In addition to adding to the catalogue of mammoth bones already discovered, the fact all three animals appear to be on top of each other could suggest they were caught in a trap. This could help answer a question that has long puzzled archaeologists – how did humans hunt these giant creatures?

The stunning find was made by Andreas Pernerstorfer, who discovered what he initially thought was a piece of wood while digging out the cellar. He reported the find to the Federal Monuments Office, which referred him to the Austrian Archaeological Institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW).

Around 150 years ago flint artefacts, jewellry fossils and charcoal were all found in an adjacent cellar, which were thought to be around 30,000 to 40,000 years old.

Archaeologists believe the layer of mammoth bones probably belonged to the same site.

They think the ‘significant bone layer’ contains the remains of at least three different mammoths.

‘Such a dense layer of bones is rare,’ said Hannah Parow-Souchon, who is leading the excavation. ‘It is the first time that we have been able to examine something like this in Austria using modern means – a unique opportunity for research.’

Mammoths: the lowdown

Mammoths are an extinct member of the elephantidae family, which includes modern-day elephants.

There were several species of mammoth, the most well-known of which is the woolly mammoth – which was also the smallest.

Mammoths evolved from the African mammoth, before spreading across Eurasia and North America.

The last mammoths, isolated groups of woolly mammoths, are thought to have gone extinct about 4,000 years ago.

However, work is ongoing to try to resurrect the species.

Researchers have long known that people in the Stone Age hunted mammoths, but exactly how they were able to take down the nine-tonne, three metre-high animals is unknown.

Now the team is investigating the site to try to determine did they simply die there, or did they fall into a trap set by locals?

If the answer is B, it will change our understanding of how Stone Age societies operated.

Once the dig is complete, the bones will be sent to the Natural History Museum in Vienna for restoration.

MORE : Unlucky worker accidentally snaps arm off famous Mexican mummy

MORE : Getting a tattoo could trigger blood cancer

MORE : Cases of most deadly skin cancer soar to an all-time high

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?

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?

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?

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?

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?

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?

This prehistoric extinction event offers valuable insights into how species respond to multiple simultaneous threats and serves as a cautionary tale for our current biodiversity crisis.

Understanding the mammoth's extinction helps us recognize the profound impact humans can have on ecosystems, even with relatively simple technology.

Title:

Content: Overfishing And Degradation, Causes Of Decline Of Marine Ecosystems In South Atlantic Ocean In Recent Decades

By

The marine ecosystems of the South Atlantic Ocean have experienced a significant decline in recent decades due to overfishing and habitat degradation. This is demonstrated by a scientific study led by the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ICTA-UAB) that sheds light on the magnitude of human impact on these once thriving marine areas based on the archaeological analysis of fish remains from several sites in Brazil.

The indigenous communities that inhabited the southern coast of Brazil for thousands of years enjoyed abundant and diverse marine ecosystems teeming with large, high trophic level fish and top predators that played an important role in their food security in the past. This allowed their periodic exploitation by indigenous populations with simple fishing technology for thousands of years. After comparing the archaeological remains of fish species from the past with the present-day fish populations, the results show a significant decrease in many of the species, particularly sharks and rays, possibly linked to the escalating human impacts, such as overfishing and habitat degradation in recent decades.

Thiago Fossile, lead author and researcher at ICTA-UAB and the UAB Department of Prehistory, emphasizes the growing anthropogenic pressures faced by aquatic fauna in Brazil, a country known for its stunning beaches and diverse wildlife. “Many species documented in archaeological sites are now endangered, while for other species there is insufficient data on their distribution and abundance. By using archaeological data, we can gain insight into these lost environments and can redefine conservation baselines”.

André Colonese, senior author of the study and researcher at ICTA-UAB and the Department of Prehistory at UAB, highlights the importance of coastal and marine ecosystems in sustaining subsistence fisheries for thousands of years along the Brazilian coast. “Hundreds of archaeological sites provide valuable information on past biodiversity, contributing to discussions on fisheries management and conservation. This study, published in PLoS ONE, emphasizes the significance of incorporating archaeological data into conservation debates in Brazil, enhancing the discipline’s relevance to environmental issues”.

For Mariana Bender, co-author from the Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, the study offers a new perspective into the understanding of the exploitation of fish biodiversity through time. “It is amazing what archeological sites can tell us relative to the impacts of ancient human populations on fish biodiversity. Looking at fish characteristics we found evidence that large top predators have long been exploited and recent fisheries have moved towards lower trophic levels. This process is not recent, but instead, has been in place for thousands of years”, she says.

Co-author Dione Bandeira of the Universidade da Região de Joinville (Brazil) explained that “Indigenous environmental stewardship serves as a model for sustainable resource utilization and plays a crucial role in conserving biodiversity in tropical and subtropical regions of South America. Additionally, studies focusing on archaeological faunal remains provide valuable insights into the origins and evolution of these enduring practices”.

Title:

Content: Subscribe now

Humans

Mammoth carcass was scavenged by ancient humans and sabre-toothed cats

A southern mammoth skeleton found in Spain bears cut marks from stone tools and bite marks from carnivore teeth, suggesting that both hominins and felids feasted on its meat

By Jeanne Timmons

18 March 2024

A mammoth that died about 1.2 million years ago became a meal for both ancient humans and sabre-toothed cats, an analysis of its bones has revealed.

Southern mammoths (Mammuthus meridionalis) were larger than today’s elephants and roamed Eurasia during the Pleistocene.

The skeleton is one of only a handful throughout the world with evidence of cut marks that old. It was excavated about 20 years ago from a fossil-rich…

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How did humans contribute to the wooly mammoth extinction?

What are the causes of the wooly mammoth extinction?

How did humans contribute to the wooly mammoth extinction?

What are the causes of the wooly mammoth extinction?

How did humans contribute to the wooly mammoth extinction?

What are the causes of the wooly mammoth extinction?

It also highlights the particular vulnerability of large, slow-reproducing species to environmental changes and human exploitation.

Title:

Content: Overfishing And Degradation, Causes Of Decline Of Marine Ecosystems In South Atlantic Ocean In Recent Decades

By

The marine ecosystems of the South Atlantic Ocean have experienced a significant decline in recent decades due to overfishing and habitat degradation. This is demonstrated by a scientific study led by the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ICTA-UAB) that sheds light on the magnitude of human impact on these once thriving marine areas based on the archaeological analysis of fish remains from several sites in Brazil.

The indigenous communities that inhabited the southern coast of Brazil for thousands of years enjoyed abundant and diverse marine ecosystems teeming with large, high trophic level fish and top predators that played an important role in their food security in the past. This allowed their periodic exploitation by indigenous populations with simple fishing technology for thousands of years. After comparing the archaeological remains of fish species from the past with the present-day fish populations, the results show a significant decrease in many of the species, particularly sharks and rays, possibly linked to the escalating human impacts, such as overfishing and habitat degradation in recent decades.

Thiago Fossile, lead author and researcher at ICTA-UAB and the UAB Department of Prehistory, emphasizes the growing anthropogenic pressures faced by aquatic fauna in Brazil, a country known for its stunning beaches and diverse wildlife. “Many species documented in archaeological sites are now endangered, while for other species there is insufficient data on their distribution and abundance. By using archaeological data, we can gain insight into these lost environments and can redefine conservation baselines”.

André Colonese, senior author of the study and researcher at ICTA-UAB and the Department of Prehistory at UAB, highlights the importance of coastal and marine ecosystems in sustaining subsistence fisheries for thousands of years along the Brazilian coast. “Hundreds of archaeological sites provide valuable information on past biodiversity, contributing to discussions on fisheries management and conservation. This study, published in PLoS ONE, emphasizes the significance of incorporating archaeological data into conservation debates in Brazil, enhancing the discipline’s relevance to environmental issues”.

For Mariana Bender, co-author from the Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, the study offers a new perspective into the understanding of the exploitation of fish biodiversity through time. “It is amazing what archeological sites can tell us relative to the impacts of ancient human populations on fish biodiversity. Looking at fish characteristics we found evidence that large top predators have long been exploited and recent fisheries have moved towards lower trophic levels. This process is not recent, but instead, has been in place for thousands of years”, she says.

Co-author Dione Bandeira of the Universidade da Região de Joinville (Brazil) explained that “Indigenous environmental stewardship serves as a model for sustainable resource utilization and plays a crucial role in conserving biodiversity in tropical and subtropical regions of South America. Additionally, studies focusing on archaeological faunal remains provide valuable insights into the origins and evolution of these enduring practices”.

How did humans contribute to the wooly mammoth extinction?

How did humans contribute to the wooly mammoth extinction?

How did humans contribute to the wooly mammoth extinction?

As we face the current extinction crisis, these lessons from the past emphasize the importance of addressing multiple threats simultaneously and the need for proactive conservation efforts to prevent further losses of Earth's magnificent megafauna.

Title:

Content: Overfishing And Degradation, Causes Of Decline Of Marine Ecosystems In South Atlantic Ocean In Recent Decades

By

The marine ecosystems of the South Atlantic Ocean have experienced a significant decline in recent decades due to overfishing and habitat degradation. This is demonstrated by a scientific study led by the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ICTA-UAB) that sheds light on the magnitude of human impact on these once thriving marine areas based on the archaeological analysis of fish remains from several sites in Brazil.

The indigenous communities that inhabited the southern coast of Brazil for thousands of years enjoyed abundant and diverse marine ecosystems teeming with large, high trophic level fish and top predators that played an important role in their food security in the past. This allowed their periodic exploitation by indigenous populations with simple fishing technology for thousands of years. After comparing the archaeological remains of fish species from the past with the present-day fish populations, the results show a significant decrease in many of the species, particularly sharks and rays, possibly linked to the escalating human impacts, such as overfishing and habitat degradation in recent decades.

Thiago Fossile, lead author and researcher at ICTA-UAB and the UAB Department of Prehistory, emphasizes the growing anthropogenic pressures faced by aquatic fauna in Brazil, a country known for its stunning beaches and diverse wildlife. “Many species documented in archaeological sites are now endangered, while for other species there is insufficient data on their distribution and abundance. By using archaeological data, we can gain insight into these lost environments and can redefine conservation baselines”.

André Colonese, senior author of the study and researcher at ICTA-UAB and the Department of Prehistory at UAB, highlights the importance of coastal and marine ecosystems in sustaining subsistence fisheries for thousands of years along the Brazilian coast. “Hundreds of archaeological sites provide valuable information on past biodiversity, contributing to discussions on fisheries management and conservation. This study, published in PLoS ONE, emphasizes the significance of incorporating archaeological data into conservation debates in Brazil, enhancing the discipline’s relevance to environmental issues”.

For Mariana Bender, co-author from the Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, the study offers a new perspective into the understanding of the exploitation of fish biodiversity through time. “It is amazing what archeological sites can tell us relative to the impacts of ancient human populations on fish biodiversity. Looking at fish characteristics we found evidence that large top predators have long been exploited and recent fisheries have moved towards lower trophic levels. This process is not recent, but instead, has been in place for thousands of years”, she says.

Co-author Dione Bandeira of the Universidade da Região de Joinville (Brazil) explained that “Indigenous environmental stewardship serves as a model for sustainable resource utilization and plays a crucial role in conserving biodiversity in tropical and subtropical regions of South America. Additionally, studies focusing on archaeological faunal remains provide valuable insights into the origins and evolution of these enduring practices”.