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(#8) They Had A Number Of Evolutionary Adaptations To Protect Against The Cold
Even though woolly mammoths superficially resemble modern-day elephants, their biology wasn't the same because they lived in vastly different conditions. Some of the more obvious differences include much smaller ears and tails, which helped to conserve heat and fight against frostbite.
More impressive, though, was a genetic mutation that essentially created a natural form of antifreeze in the animals' blood to allow them to transport oxygen within the body during extreme cold. Three unique amino acids found in frozen specimens allowed the hemoglobin in the blood to continue to function effectively.
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(#6) Mammoths Were As Intelligent As Modern Elephants
A study conducted in Russia in 2015 suggested that mammoths were likely just as intelligent as modern-day African elephants.
Comparing the brains of a preserved woolly mammoth known as Yuka with elephant specimens from South Africa, researchers found them almost identical in size and structure, which means they likely had similar cognitive abilities.
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(#5) Females Generally Moved Around In Herds
While males were often caught up in hazards that would lead to natural preservation, such as bogs and lakes, this usually wasn't the case with female mammoths, which were generally more risk-averse.
The females would normally move around in large herds led by an older matriarch. They were more capable of avoiding potentially threatening situations, like thin ice or mud flows, because they were more aware of environmental dangers.
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(#7) A Number Of Factors Led To Their Demise
Woolly mammoths were common throughout North America and Siberia for hundreds of thousands of years. The giant creatures began to die out around 20,000 years ago, however, and are believed to have become extinct 4,000 years ago when the last of a few isolated groups disappeared.
No one reason is to blame for their extinction. Although humans lived alongside the animals for thousands of years, people likely played a significant part in mammoths' demise due to hunting. Yet climate change may have been the defining factor that wiped out the mammoths. As the planet gradually became warmer, the natural environment for the mammoth would have severely shrunk, leaving them with little habitat to live in.
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(#10) Woolly Mammoths Are One Of The Most Studied Prehistoric Animals
The woolly mammoth is one of the most studied prehistoric animals in history not because of its distinctive appearance or because it's particularly interesting to researchers. Instead, woolly mammoth remains have been well preserved because the animals lived in such cold environments.
The freezing temperatures meant that fossils survived in excellent condition, with skeletons, tusks, dung, and even flesh staying frozen for thousands of years.
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(#2) Genetic Defects May Have Led To Their Extinction
Just before the woolly mammoths went extinct they went into what has been described as a "genomic meltdown." As their populations diminished rapidly and only small groups survived, their gene diversity was dramatically reduced. This led to significant mutations in their DNA; these genetic defects would have caused the animals to lose their sense of smell and change their social behavior.
"There was this huge excess of what looked like bad mutations in the genome of the mammoth," said Dr. Rebekah Rogers, a researcher from the University of California, Berkeley. "We found these bad mutations were accumulating in the mammoth genome right before they went extinct."
In 2020, researchers with the University of Chicago published a study in which they successfully resurrected mammoth genes from the last known population of the species on Wrangel Island in the Arctic Ocean. The goal was "to test whether their mutations actually were damaging," said lead author and assistant professor of biological sciences Vincent Lynch, since most mutations have little to no actual effect.
The study compared the Wrangel Island mammoth genes to that of similar populations such as Asian elephants and two other mammoth species. Using the synthesized altered genes of the Wrangel Island mammoths, researchers were able to visually see how they interacted with other molecules.
The results of the 2020 study complement Rogers's theory. Lynch concluded that "the last mammoths may have been pretty sick and unable to smell flowers [which they ate for food], so that’s just sad."
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About This Tool
Mammoths are prehistoric behemoths. Archaeologists discovered their fossils on the continent in the recent century and everything about them attracted human attention. Scientists have analyzed the fossils of mammoths to know the mammoth is an ancient vertebrate that lived widely in Europe, Asia, and North America about 10,000 years ago. The last batch of mammoths went extinct around 1650 BC. So what caused this huge race to be extinct?
Paleontologists and archaeologists can only explore the truth about mammoths in their research. As the research continues, some mysteries about mammoths were gradually revealed. The main reason for the extinction of mammoths should be global climate change and human behaviors. Here the random tool revealed 11 facts about mammoths.
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