Why did wooly mammoths die out

The numbers are similar to those of the last woolly mammoths living on Wrangel Island in the Arctic Ocean around 4, years ago. Dr Rebekah Rogers of the University of California, Berkeley, who led the research, said the mammoths' genomes "were falling apart right before they went extinct". This, she said, was the first case of "genomic meltdown" in a single species. The researchers analysed genetic mutations found in the ancient DNA of a mammoth from 4, years ago. They used the DNA of a mammoth that lived about 45, years ago, when populations were much larger, as a comparison.

Woolly mammoths were once common in North America and Siberia. They were driven to extinction by environmental factors and possibly human hunting about 10, years ago. Small island populations clung on until about 4, years ago. Knowledge of the last days of the mammoth could help modern species on the brink of extinction, such as the panda, mountain gorilla and Indian elephant.

The lesson from the woolly mammoth is that once numbers drop below a certain level, the population's genetic health may be beyond saving. But "it's probably unlikely that it was just this one individual that had these defects," Lynch said. In fact, the case of the Wrangel Island mammoths is a cautionary tale about what can happen to a population that is too small and therefore lacks genetic diversity, he said. The findings build on those from a study published in in the journal PLOS Genetics that found that the Wrangel Island mammoth population was accumulating damaging mutations.

The new study was published online Feb. Originally published on Live Science. Laura is an editor at Live Science. She edits Life's Little Mysteries and reports on general science, including archaeology and animals. She has won multiple awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association for her reporting at a weekly newspaper near Seattle. Laura holds a bachelor's degree in English literature and psychology from Washington University in St.

Louis and an advanced certificate in science writing from NYU. Live Science. Laura Geggel. See all comments There are innumerable woolly mammoths perfectly preserved frozen standing up, caught while eating and food still in their mouths.

Alaska, Russia More Videos Huge trove of mammoth skeletons found in Mexico While woolly mammoths were once plentiful across the northern hemisphere, they actually went extinct in two separate events. The first wave of mammoth extinction occurred on the heels of the last ice age and global warming led to the loss of their habitat, around 10, years ago.

But isolated populations of mammoths survived for much longer on St. Paul Island in Alaska and Wrangel Island , until about 5, years ago and 4, years ago, respectively. Wrangel Island is in the Arctic Ocean, located off the Siberian coast. Previous research in identified genomic defects that likely had a detrimental effect on the Wrangel Island mammoths. How bad were the effects of these mutations? How did they change what was happening in cells or the ways that the animals could act?

Read More. The last woolly mammoth died 4, years ago on an island in the Arctic -- and that's significant.