The mammoth, a giant mastodon that roamed the Earth during the Ice Age, is one of the most iconic and charismatic extinct animals. With their massive size and long, curved tusks, they became a symbol of prehistoric megafauna. Today, scientists at Harvard are even attempting to bring them back by combining mammoth DNA with that of modern Asian Elephants-Are-Endangered.html">elephants. But the key question remains: why did mammoths go extinct?
For decades, the prevailing explanation was that human hunting wiped them out. However, modern genetic and environmental research shows the story is much more complex, involving climate change, hunting pressure, and genetic decline.
During the Ice Age, cold and dry climates with low atmospheric CO₂ prevented widespread forest growth, leaving vast open grasslands.
These “mammoth steppe” ecosystems provided abundant food for mammoths and other large herbivores.
As the Earth warmed and became wetter, forests expanded, replacing the grasslands.
Result: food sources for mammoths shrank dramatically, leading to population collapse.
Early humans hunted mammoths for meat, hides, bones, and ivory.
While hunting certainly reduced local populations, evidence shows it was not the sole or even the primary driver of extinction.
As climate change fragmented their habitats, isolated populations survived in scattered refuges.
The last known group lived on Wrangel Island in the Arctic Ocean, surviving until about 3,700 years ago.
DNA analysis comparing mainland mammoths (45,000 years ago) with Wrangel Island mammoths (4,000 years ago) shows severe genetic deterioration.
Inbreeding caused harmful mutations to accumulate rapidly, weakening survival and reproduction until the final population collapsed.
Mammoths thrived during the Pliocene and Pleistocene epochs, when about 30% of Earth’s land was covered by ice. Their preferred habitat was the mammoth steppe, stretching across:
Eastern Europe
Siberia
Alaska
Yukon (Canada)
Despite snowy conditions, Ice Age plants were unusually nutrient-rich, storing high levels of carbohydrates and fiber due to the harsh climate. This made them excellent food for mammoths, which grazed on tough grasses, herbs, and shrubs.
6 million years ago – Ancestors of mammoths evolved in Africa.
3 million years ago – They spread into North Africa, Asia, and Europe.
1.7 million years ago – Steppe mammoths appeared in China and spread across the Northern Hemisphere.
700,000 years ago – Woolly mammoths emerged in Siberia, adapted to extreme cold.
200,000 years ago – Steppe mammoths in Europe disappeared.
14,000 years ago – End of the last glaciation; mammoth evolution halted.
10,000 years ago – Most mainland mammoths went extinct.
4,000 years ago – The last surviving population on Wrangel Island disappeared, marking the species’ extinction.
Mammoths did not vanish because of one single cause. Instead, their extinction was the result of a perfect storm:
Climate change destroyed their grassland habitats.
Human hunting added additional survival pressure.
Genetic decline in isolated populations sealed their fate.
Today, attempts to “de-extinct” mammoths are not just about curiosity. They could also provide vital insights into how species adapt—or fail to adapt—to climate change and human impact.
animal tags： mammoth
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