Humans Hastened the Extinction of the Woolly Mammoth
upstart writes:
Humans hastened the extinction of the woolly mammoth:
An international team of scientists led by researchers from the University of Adelaide and University of Copenhagen, has revealed a 20,000-year pathway to extinction for the woolly mammoth.
"Our research shows that humans were a crucial and chronic driver of population declines of woolly mammoths, having an essential role in the timing and location of their extinction," said lead author Associate Professor Damien Fordham from the University of Adelaide's Environment Institute.
[...] Signatures of past changes in the distribution and demography of woolly mammoths identified from fossils and ancient DNA show that people hastened the extinction of woolly mammoths by up to 4,000 years in some regions.
[...] The study also shows that woolly mammoths are likely to have survived in the Arctic for thousands of years longer than previously thought, existing in small areas of habitat with suitable climatic conditions and low densities of humans.
"Our finding of long-term persistence in Eurasia independently confirms recently published environmental DNA evidence that shows that woolly mammoths were roaming around Siberia 5,000 years ago," said Associate Professor Jeremey Austin from the University of Adelaide's Australian Centre for Ancient DNA.
Journal Reference:
Damien A. Fordham, Stuart C. Brown, H. Reit Akcakaya, et al. Processexplicit models reveal pathway to extinction for woolly mammoth using patternoriented validation, Ecology Letters (DOI: 10.1111/ele.13911)
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