Previous estimates had woolly mammoths, cave lions, short-faced bears and other ancient- megafauna dying out mainly due to the influences of ancient humans. New studies show that this might not be completely true.
The Death of Woolly Mammoths
It was previously believed that woolly mammoths and other large creatures from the last ice age around 11,000 years ago went extinct due to the aggressive hunting of ancient humans. However, scientists are now saying that the hunting of woolly mammoths may not have been the biggest factor for their extinction. Scientists are now saying that woolly mammoths likely died out mainly due to rapid, natural climate warming.
The Attainment of this Knowledge
By using data found from the Late Pleistocene era, a time in history that ended at 9,700 BCE, concerning rapid climate change, scientists have hypothesized that woolly mammoths along with other large mammals may have gone extinct due to the warming events. Researchers compared the known extinction information about ancient megafungal species with the severe climate events, and found a connection between the large animals’ extinction and the massive warming. Alan Cooper from the University of Adelaide, Australia said, “By combining these two records, we can place the climate and radiocarbon dating data on the same timescale, thereby allowing us to precisely align the dated fossils against climate.”
The Fall of Giants
Scientists are saying that the global warming would have caused several factors that would have made it hard for woolly mammoths and other megafauna to survive. The heat wouldn’t have directly had a huge impact on the animals themselves, but it would have impacted their prey and habitats. Woolly mammoths were herbivores, meaning that they only ate plants. The climate warming could have dried up the plants that the creatures ate, and therefore would have made it incredibly hard to find food.
The rapid warming and lack of food would have made it so the animals would have to migrate to new areas to live, but humans likely would have made that significantly more difficult. While humans were not the main factor to the extinction of woolly mammoths, they were likely the proverbial “nail in the coffin” to the already difficult times that the gentle giants were experiencing.
