An open source (yes, indeed, you can read it too simply by clicking on the link) article in PLOS Biology this week addresses the issue of what killed the woolly mammoth: a population weakened by climate change at the end of the Pleistocene was finished off by human predation:
Nogués-Bravo D, Rodríguez J, Hortal J, Batra P, Araújo MB (2008) Climate Change, Humans, and the Extinction of the Woolly Mammoth. PLoS Biology 6(4): e79 (scientific article)
Sedwick Caitlin (2008) What Killed the Woolly Mammoth? PLoS Biology 6(4): e99 (general public summary)
Comments
Interesting Mammoth research. Has the earths polar magnetism been established at the time of extingsion ? Humans may have helped with the mommoths demise; but how were they frozen so quickly also why havn’t frozen humans been found [ other then the alps man ] in places where mammoth have been found? I enjoyed the infomation. Thank you.