Climate change, rather than humans, may have been responsible for driving the woolly mammoth to extinction, according to a new study.
The study by British and Swedish researchers analysed DNA samples from 300 specimens of woolly mammoths collected by themselves and other groups in earlier studies.
Scientists, led by Dr love Dalen of the Swedish Museum of Natural History, found that the species nearly went extinct 120,000 years ago when the world warmed up for a while.
They believe their numbers dropped from several million to tens of thousands, but recovered as the planet entered another Ice Age. The study also found that the decline that led to the mammoth’s eventual extinction began 20,000 years ago when the Ice Age was at its height, rather than 14,000 years ago when the world began to warm again as previously thought.
Researchers believe that it was so cold that the grass the creatures ate became scarce. As the Ice Age ended, the grassland on which the creatures thrived was probably replaced by forests.