What Killed Off the Woolly Beasts? Still A Mystery

What Killed Off the Woolly Beasts? Still A Mystery

Reported in LiveScience .com

http://news.yahoo.com/mammoth-mystery-killed-off-woolly-beast-162206408.html

Scientists believe they have found the culprit behind the extinction of some of the ice age giants. Researchers believe the wooly rhinos and musk ox were done in by climate change.

The wild horse and steppe bison were affected by expanding human populations, but climate change is also believed to have played a role. Ancient bison were harmed by both climate change and human influences. Wild reindeer did not seem to be affected badly by climate or humans with their numbers remaining in the millions over the past 50,000 years.

Paleogeneticists studied DNA sequences collected from hundreds of bones collected over many field seasons. Extracting the genetic data took seven years. The researchers could reconstruct aspects of the animals history based on genetic diversity and by examining known fossils. Unfortunately, the end of the woolly mammoth is still a mystery. Their numbers remained high at least 10,000 years after first human contact. The mammoths migrated north but it is not known if it was due to human encroachment or habitat reduction due to climate changes. There is not enough fossil data or paleoclimate data from their final decline 6,000 years ago.

It seems like it was a mammoth waste of time doing this study since no definitive conclusion was drawn on the extinction of the woolly mammoths. It would be interesting if they were able to clone the ancient DNA and see how the mammoths would survive the modern climate and environment. Global warming and different plant species as food sources would probably make it difficult for them to survive in modern times. However, it is important for scientists to investigate why species become extinct to help animals that are endangered.