The obvious explanation is that humans killed them off, just like very many species of large animal which became extinct when exposed to humans. However, elephants have survived, though maybe for not much longer. Why have they fared better than mammoth?
Scientists are not unanimous over the extinction of mammoth. Some believe that climate change was the driving force behind their extinction, however, other believe that mammoths disappeared due to hunting by humans. Furthermore, Researchers from Sweden have used new DNA technology to show that a drastic change in the dominant vegetation from protein-rich herbs to less nutritious grass could be the reason for their extinction. According to researchers from United States, genomic defects in mammoths have been the causal factor for their extinction. Now Russian scientists have claimed that a genetic mutation changed the structure of an important protein responsible for vital cell activity. This mutation did not allow the mammoth’s protein to work efficiently leading to their extinction.
Article What Killed the Woolly Mammoth?
Article Excess of genomic defects in a woolly mammoth on Wrangel island
http://digital.csic.es/bitstream/10261/9824/1/10.1371_journal.pbio.0060079-L.pdf
https://phys.org/news/2014-02-dna-reveals-clues-mammoths-die.html
https://www.rbth.com/science-and-tech/328469-why-did-mammoths-go-extinct
Scientists are not unanimous over the extinction of mammoth. Some believe that climate change was the driving force behind their extinction, however, other believe that mammoths disappeared due to hunting by humans. Furthermore, Researchers from Sweden have used new DNA technology to show that a drastic change in the dominant vegetation from protein-rich herbs to less nutritious grass could be the reason for their extinction. According to researchers from United States, genomic defects in mammoths have been the causal factor for their extinction. Now Russian scientists have claimed that a genetic mutation changed the structure of an important protein responsible for vital cell activity. This mutation did not allow the mammoth’s protein to work efficiently leading to their extinction.
Article What Killed the Woolly Mammoth?
Article Excess of genomic defects in a woolly mammoth on Wrangel island
http://digital.csic.es/bitstream/10261/9824/1/10.1371_journal.pbio.0060079-L.pdf
https://phys.org/news/2014-02-dna-reveals-clues-mammoths-die.html
https://www.rbth.com/science-and-tech/328469-why-did-mammoths-go-extinct
I think any explanation needs to apply to the other large beasts that went extinct, not just mammoth. Climate change is at least a general explanation, but I doubt it is correct.
- Badges
- Science method
- Similar topics
- Biological Science
- Ecology