Mammoths must continue to exist; its disappearance remains a mystery
A new study rules out the main reasons for the disappearance of mammoths. Scientists are not sure they will be able to solve the mystery.
Does 10 thousand yearslast population woolly mammoths was isolated on Wrangel Island off the coast Siberia. At that time, these huge mammals were besieged by sea waters that rose to such an extent that they separated this area from the rest of the continent. From this context, it was hypothesized that the surviving mammoths were doomed to extinctiongiven that the few members and low genetic diversity were not enough to sustain the species. However, a new study says that Neither of these were good reasons for the disappearance of these animals.. In other words, these points will not serve as an explanation when it comes to indicating what led to the disappearance of the woolly giants. So, What’s happened?
A recent paper in Cell argues that, in essence, survivors show signs of inbreedingwhat led to low genetic diversitybut that too something else had to happen so the mammoths became extinct.
Follow the mystery
The study authors set out to understand the genomic implications Bottleneck on Wrangel Island In the above-mentioned population, the genomes of 21 were analyzed mammoths woolly: 14 island residents and 7 mainland residents.. Moreover, the last 50 thousand years of specieswhich made it possible to understand how the genetic diversity of these animals has changed.
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Beyond reasonable limits inbreedingthe specimens remaining on the island showed decreased diversity in the major histocompatibility complex, a group of genes known to play a critical role in the immune response. vertebrates.
Even taking into account the above and the fact that the island’s mammoths added mildly harmful mutations, the researchers showed that The population was able to slowly reverse many of these changes, which did little to help the conservation of the species.. So, if we exclude these ancient reasons that explain the mystery, the extinction of the mammoths remains a mystery.
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“We don’t know why they died out after living more or less well for 6,000 years.but we think it was something suddenI would say there is still hope to find out why they died out, but there are no promises“The main author says in the statement, Love Dalenevolutionary geneticist at the Centre for Palaeogenetics, a joint venture between the Swedish Museum of Natural History and Stockholm University (Sweden).
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