After analysis, it is known that mammoths survived in north-central Siberia about 3,900 years ago. Scientists believe that fossils of a young mammoth were found, and it lived 10,700 years ago.
Mammoths are known to have once inhabited Siberia’s coasts and the Bering Sea islands. By analyzing ancient DNA from environmental material, scientists have found new insights into animal extinctions.
Genetic evidence of Eurasian woolly rhinos indicates that these animals lived in the region for thousands of years. Research reports that even after mammoths and rhinos died, their large bones survived for a long time under the frozen ground.
Paleontologists Joshua Miller of the University of Cincinnati and Carl Thomson of the University of Colorado Boulder say the genetic evidence now available challenges what was previously thought about the extinction of these animals.
When and how other Ice Age animals, including mammoths, died out has long been a mystery. Determining when a species becomes completely extinct is not easy.
Fossil and environmental DNA analysis provide insights into where and how long the species lived. DNA samples can come from a living animal and can also come from bones.
A bone’s DNA persists for decades in warmer climates. But in cold climates, this time is much longer. DNA analysis of the youngest mammoth indicates a time when the species’ population dwindled. the