The international team of researchers found that the cause of extinction of Mammoths in Siberia was primarily a sharp change in climate, and not human activity. The article of scientists was published in the Nature magazine.
Woolly mammoths extinct only about four thousand years ago. They were not only the main source of the meat of the ancient people – the latter did from their bones the basis for housing, and even musical instruments were made of their appearance. Therefore, the theory is widespread, according to which people were the main cause of extinction.
Researchers from the Institute of SCBSU Earth Sciences together with colleagues from Great Britain, Denmark, China, Norway and the United States decided to restore the appearance of the tundrostepi in which Mammoths lived. For this, they are a shotgun by receiving from a random massive sample of cloned fragments of the initial sequence – analyzed DNA of ancient plants and animals collected from 535 different places of the Arctic, where the Mammoth dwells, for 20 years. They also analyzed DNA more than 1.5 thousand modern plants and animals.
Researchers managed to apply the distribution of mammoth populations and other representatives of the tundrostepi megafauna. They saw that over time their populations and genetic diversity became less and less – which made survival more and more complex. With the end of the Pleistocene about 12 thousand years ago and the accompanying departure of glaciers and the formation of rivers, lakes and marshes, vegetation decreased in its volume, and it was not enough to maintain the former level of populations. As the climate warps, trees and swamp plants occupied the place of the former pastures of mammoths. “We have shown that climate change, in particular precipitation, directly led to changes in vegetation. According to our models, people did not have any influence on them [Mammoths],” said the first author of the work, a researcher of the University of Cambridge Yulen Van.
However, not only the warming of climate has affected the disappearance of the mammoths. “His speed has become the last nail in the coffin lid – they (Megafaun Tundrostpepie – approx.” Ribbons.ru “) could not quickly adapt enough when the landscape was radically transformed and the food began to be lacking,” said the head of the scientific group, Professor Copenhagen and Cambridge Universities Esk Willerslev.