Mammoths Wiped Out by Grass Invasion?
A drastic change in plant life may have been responsible for the sudden demise of the woolly mammoth and other large mammals of the tundra 10,000 years ago, a study suggests.
LONDON: A drastic change in plant life may have been responsible for the sudden demise of the woolly mammoth and other large mammals of the tundra 10,000 years ago, a study suggests.
Researchers from Lund University in Sweden and 30 other research teams from 12 countries across the world, have used new DNA technology to show that a drastic change in the dominant vegetation ¡ª from protein-rich herbs to less nutritious grass ¡ª could be behind their demise.
The study has investigated what plants were dominant during the last 50,000 years in the Arctic land areas of northern Russia, Canada and Alaska.
Although large areas were covered in ice 18,000 to 25,000 years ago, there were also ice-free areas in this Arctic region hosting the so-called mammoth steppe.
On the cold, dry tundra, there were plenty of mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, steppe bison, horse and musk ox. Most of these large mammal species, however, died out or disappeared from here about 10,000 years ago. agencies.
Agencies
