"Mammoths can't go extinct. They're the biggest things on Earth," said Manny, the woolly mammoth character in the movie Ice Age. But the hairy cousins of Asian and African elephants were wiped off of this planet around 4,000 years ago. Why mammoths and other Arctic mammals became extinct at the end of the last ice age is a hotly debated question. One widely accepted theory is that fire and the development of tools, such as spears, hooks, and nets, helped humans become ace hunters, driving woolly mammoths, ground sloths, rhinoceros, and other mammals into extinction.1 However, researchers also consider climate change, habitat loss, and disease outbreaks as probable causes.2
In recent years, scientists turned to environmental DNA (eDNA) in permafrost and lake sediments across the Arctic to dig deeper into the reasons behind mass species extinction. In a study published in Nature, led by Eske Willeslev from the University of ...
