Mammoths died out from a lack of fresh water.
The last population of mammoths on Earth died out about 5600 years ago because of the shortage of water.
To such conclusion the American scientists, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The main groups of mammoths in Eurasia and North America died out about 10 thousand years ago, but small populations of several thousand years, stayed on the Islands of the Arctic ocean. If on the island they lived four thousand years ago, the fate of the animals St. Paul’s Islands (Bering sea) has long remained unknown.
Scientists knew that Hootie was inhabited for at least 6,500 years ago. Now researchers from the U.S. and Canada analyzed column and bottom sediments from the island and dated fragments of DNA in them. “The mammoths went to one of the lakes on the island, probably defecated there, and so their DNA got into the water and settled on the bottom,” — said co-author Russell Graham (Graham Russell).
Dating DNA and spores of mushrooms growing in the dung of animals, allowed to determine the time of the extinction of the mammoths — 5600 years ago. In addition, the researchers found that between 7850 and 5600 years ago the lake became more salty, shallow and turbid.
Then the rising sea level began to “eat off” the island, and water for animals became smaller. Mammoths on the island started to crowd around the lake, eating plants that, in turn, further accelerated the erosion and the silting up of the reservoir. Scientists believe that a shortage of fresh water (and thirst) led to the final extinction of animals, which in day we had about 100 liters of fluid.
