A recent genome study has provided new insights into the extinction of the last woolly mammoths. Researchers have sequenced 21 complete genomes from bones and teeth collected on Wrangel Island, an Arctic island, where the last known mammoths survived until around 2000 BC. Despite being inbred, scientists found that a lack of genetic diversity was not the primary cause of their extinction. The study, published in Cell, explores the temporal dynamics of woolly mammoth genome erosion and raises questions about what ultimately led to their demise. Rising sea levels had stranded the mammoths on the island.
Trapped on a hunk of rock in the Arctic Ocean after rising sea levels cut them off from present-day Siberia, the mammoths of Wrangel island were the last of their species to go extinct. Two palaeogeneticists have been exploring how they died https://t.co/jd1C35MC1b 🦣
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Woolly mammoths survived on Wrangel Island until 2000 BC! But why did they go extinct? Were they doomed once stuck on the island? We went to Siberia, collected bones & teeth, and sequenced 21 complete genomes. Here is what we found (🧵) Paper in Cell: https://t.co/QOGiibyWT3 https://t.co/Tg3w9erVOS
Genome study deepens mystery of what doomed Earth's last mammoths https://t.co/h0hI6swiVZ https://t.co/tMIaozVUD2
Picture a remote Arctic island 10,000 years ago, where a handful of woolly mammoths became stranded by rising sea levels. Despite the risks of inbreeding, they survived for millennia to become the last known mammoths on Earth. https://t.co/fIJUaYk081
About 4,000 years ago, the last woolly mammoth died. Though it was inbred, scientists say this lack of genetic diversity is not what caused the extinction. https://t.co/IlhCIbTRoV
Love this story about the last known woolly mammoths on Earth https://t.co/eeUGNlpZAE
When I first read, years ago, that there were mammoths alive when the Great Pyramids were built, I didn’t believe it. https://t.co/fBvGPNetSD
What happened to the last woolly mammoths? How did they go extinct? Online now! the analysis of woolly mammoth genomes allowed researchers to investigate the genomic changes that lead to the extinction of the species’ last surviving population https://t.co/LJXePvxHxb https://t.co/Cjp8eWC93O
Temporal dynamics of woolly mammoth genome erosion prior to extinction 🦣🧬 https://t.co/TzCBDq89cd
A Piece of Evidence May Explain Why the Woolly Mammoth Disappeared So Suddenly https://t.co/Q0ftqJZqI4