Woolly Mammoth - Distribution and Habitat

Distribution and Habitat

The habitat of the woolly mammoth is known as "mammoth steppe" or "tundra steppe". This environment stretched across northern Asia, many parts of Europe, and the northern part of North America during the last ice age. It was similar to the grassy steppes of modern Russia, but the flora was more diverse, abundant, and grew faster. Grasses, sedges, shrubs, and herbaceous plants were present, and scattered trees were mainly found in southern regions. This habitat was not dominated by ice and snow, as is popularly believed, since these regions are thought to have been high-pressure areas at the time. The habitat of the woolly mammoth also supported other grazing herbivores such as the woolly rhinoceros, wild horses and bison. Woolly mammoths have been found in the same locations as those of the Columbian mammoth in North America, but it is unknown whether the two species were sympatric. The woolly mammoth may have entered these southern areas during times when Columbian mammoth populations were absent. The southernmost woolly mammoth specimen known is from the Shandong province of China, and is 33,000 years old. The southernmost European remains are from the Granada Basin of Spain and are of roughly the same age.

DNA studies have helped determine the phylogeography of the woolly mammoth. A 2008 DNA study showed there were two distinct groups of woolly mammoths: one that went extinct 45,000 years ago and another one that went extinct 12,000 years ago. The two groups are speculated to be divergent enough to be characterised as subspecies. The group that went extinct earlier stayed in the middle of the high Arctic, while the group with the later extinction had a much wider range. Recent stable isotope studies of Siberian and New World mammoths have shown there were also differences in climatic conditions on either side of the Bering land bridge, with Siberia being more uniformly cold and dry throughout the Late Pleistocene. A 2008 genetic study showed that some of the woolly mammoths that entered North America through the Bering land bridge from Asia migrated back and replaced the Asian population shortly before the entire species went extinct. During the Younger Dryas age, woolly mammoths briefly expanded into north-east Europe, after the mainland populations had become extinct.