Researchers discovered that woolly mammoths survived thousands of years more in Europe, Asia and Africa – which could make them viable today, even if they are extinct.
University of Adelaide and University of Copenhagen conducted a study that disproved the common belief that climate change had decimated Eurasia’s mammal populations before humankind.
They discovered that while the climate did have an effect, human activity accelerated the woolly mammoth’s death by as much as 4000 years in certain regions.
“We don’t deny climate change played a role. We are saying that humans played a greater role than was originally thought,” Associate Professor Damien Fordham, the study’s principal author said.
According to the study, although it is a common theory that climate change has eventually caused the death of woolly mammoths in some areas (pictured), their data suggests otherwise
“We are certain that woolly mammoths were exploited by humans for their meat, skins and bones, as well as ivory.”
“However, it was difficult until now to decipher the precise roles climate warming and hunting played in its extinction.”
Fordham explained that an international group of scientists created computer simulations using fossils and old DNA. The process took five years.
According to Assoc Prof Fordham of University of Adelaide, the University of Adelaide Environment Institute, “We recreated the whole extinction route over a period of 211,000 years”
While it is a common theory that climate change could have ultimately killed woolly mammoths, the data suggests otherwise.
Scientists discovered that while the climate has an effect, human activity can accelerate the woolly mammoth’s death by as much as 4000 years in certain regions.
According to research, they may have survived thousands more years in Arctic temperatures and still be living today in an Arctic world that is free of humans.
“It is interesting. “It’s interesting that we removed humans from the simulation and some models showed the persistence of woolly mammoths,” Assoc Prof Fordham stated.
‘Which makes us believe that they may have been in a position to continue to live in the future in some areas, possibly even closer to today… in northern Siberia.
Ecological Letters published the study.