FLICKR, JAMES ST. JOHNBy the time the last woolly mammoths died out, around 4,000 years ago, they may have been shadows of their former, majestic selves. According to a study published March 2 in PLOS Genetics, the final generation of mammoths was plagued by genetic mutations that resulted in coats unfit for freezing winters, digestive problems, and lack of urine proteins that help elephants and similar species attract mates.
The scientists based their conclusions on a comparison of ancient DNA culled from two woolly mammoth specimens found in Siberia—one 45,000-year-old specimen from the mainland and one 4,300-year-old specimen from Wrangel Island. “This study was very interesting because it let us look at a snapshot of ‘before’ and ‘after’ a change in population size within a single species,” coauthor Rebekah Rogers of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte told Scientific American. “In the Wrangel Island mammoth we see a massive excess of what appear to be bad mutations. It’s difficult to catch a population in the process of going extinct, but this study finally made it possible, thanks to advances in DNA sequencing.”
The team’s genetic analysis suggested that the final mammoths suffered from ...
