Stockholm, Sweden

According to a new study, the last woolly mammoth population vanished due to a sudden, random event 4,000 years ago. The genome analysis suggests that the mammoths did not go extinct for genetic reasons, as earlier believed.

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Woolly mammoths lived across the frozen land of Europe, North America, and Asia. However, as the ice started to melt, the food they lived on became scarce which caused their population to shrink considerably.

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The last population of mammoths that traveled across the ice to Wrangel Island located in Russia, were cut off from the mainland about 10,000 years ago. According to the researchers, the small group on the island consisted of at least eight mammoths which grew to about 200-300. This population is known to survive 6,000 years more than the rest.

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When compared with the mainland population, the island population shows evidence that suggests inbreeding and low genetic diversity. However, the mammoths only accumulated mildly harmful mutations, that were not adverse enough to lead to their extinction. The more harmful mutations were not viable and were discarded by the population over time.

“We can now confidently reject the idea that the population was simply too small and that they were doomed to go extinct for genetic reasons,” said senior author Love Dalén, an evolutionary geneticist at the Centre for Palaeogenetics, a collaboration between the Swedish Museum of Natural History and Stockholm University. “This means it was probably just some random event that killed them off, and if that random event hadn't happened, then we would still have mammoths today.”

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The mammoth genomes examined in this research did not include the last 300 years of their time on Earth. New fossils have been discovered by researchers and will be studied in future.

“What happened at the end is a bit of a mystery still—we don't know why they went extinct after having been more or less fine for 6,000 years, but we think it was something sudden,” said Dalén. “I would say there is still hope to figure out why they went extinct, but no promises.”

This study not only analyses how the woolly mammoths were killed but may also provide us insights into current endangered species and make informed strategies for their conservation. 

(With inputs from agencies)