Adams Mammoth - Extinction

Extinction

Most woolly mammoth populations disappeared during the late Pleistocene and early Holocene, likely due to the combined effects of climate change and hunting by humans. A 2008 study by scientists at Spain's Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales estimated that changes in climate shrank suitable mammoth habitat from 7,700,000 km2 (3,000,000 sq mi) 42,000 years ago to 800,000 km2 (310,000 sq mi) 6,000 years ago. Although woolly mammoths survived an even greater loss of habitat at the end of the Saale glaciation 125,000 years ago, it is likely that, at the end of the last ice age, humans hunted the remaining populations to extinction. The same fate befell many other large Pleistocene animals. Studies of a 11,300–11,000 year old trackway in southwestern Canada showed that M. primigenius was in decline while coexisting with humans. The same site also showed evidence of human hunting of horses and bovines. During the Younger Dryas age, and woolly mammoths briefly expanded into north east Europe at this time, where after the mainland populations went extinct.

A small population of woolly mammoths survived on St. Paul Island, Alaska, until 6,400 years ago, while another remained on Wrangel Island in the Arctic Ocean until 4000 years ago, when the ancient Egyptians built the pyramids.

A 2010 study hypothesizes that the decline of the woolly mammoth could have increased temperatures by up to 0.2°C at high latitudes in the northern hemisphere. Mammoths frequently ate birch trees, creating a grassland habitat. With the disappearance of mammoths, birch forests, which absorb more sunlight than grasslands, expanded, leading to regional warming.