DNA study suggests hunting did not kill off mammoth

BBC News ^ | 9-10-2013 | Pallab Ghosh

[Renfield]

Researchers have found evidence to suggest that climate change, rather than humans, was the main factor that drove the woolly mammoth to extinction.

A DNA analysis shows that the number of creatures began to decrease much earlier than previously thought as the world's climate changed.

It also shows that there was a distinct population of mammoth in Europe that died out around 30,000 years ago.

The results have published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

The view many researchers had about woolly mammoths is that they were a hardy, abundant species that thrived during their time on the planet....

[Renfield]

Ping

[WayneS]

So then it’s George Bush’s fault...

[Jemian]

Oh, good. One less thing for me to feel guilty about. I’m sure it was SUV emissions.

[Sacajaweau]

Thank God for climate change. God works in mysterious ways.

[Sacajaweau]

Go check your tires....Right now...lest we all die!!

[sodpoodle]

What group of morons actually believe that early man - with only primitive weapons could hunt, kill and carve up those massive beasts for food?

[luvbach1]

What group of morons actually believe that early man - with only primitive weapons could hunt, kill and carve up those massive beasts for food?

Some wooly mammoth bones have been found which show evidence of cutting as in butchering, not animal predation. I think there's agreement among paleontologists and other scientists that early Man did indeed hunt and kill mammoths, albeit not in a number to threaten their extinction as the article indicates. Anyway, that's the group of morons who believe humans could and did kill mammoths.

[bmwcyle]

I always thought is was a sudden freeze.

[slowhandluke]

What group of morons actually believe that early man - with only primitive weapons could hunt, kill and carve up those massive beasts for food?

Maybe those who know that primitive weapons could be used to take down elephants. Ivory was being shipped out of Africa long before firearms were introduced there.

Or were you being sarcastic?

[sodpoodle]

OK - I’ll concede that early man may have seen food opportunity in animals that were already dead (by predators age, misadventure or disease)....but I still question whether they had the tools for hunting, trapping and killing such massive creatures.

[sodpoodle]

Not being sarcastic - but skeptical. Please inform on the primitive weapons that were used to kill elephants.

It would seem more likely that dead carcasses were scavenged for ivory and meat. i.e. Old, large elephants have bigger tusks. Dead elephants are less risky than agile, live ones.

[Sacajaweau]

Let's see....would I kill a mammoth or a few deer?

If there was a meat shortage...maybe...but there was not. So they killed and ate a few...big deal...

[JimRed]

Since animals adapt to a lot of different conditions given enough time, we can assume that the climate change was very sudden.

[central_va]

Cave Man 1: “I got an idea: let’s sharpen some long sticks and try to poke and kill a mammoth? Whose with me?”
Cave Man 2: “ Yeah right...”

[dfwgator]

I thought it was all the cigarettes and booze.

[RobinOfKingston]

Anyway, that's the group of morons who believe humans could and did kill mammoths.

I guess that makes me an ancillary moron. Or, maybe just a moron hanger-on.

;-)

[pa_dweller]

I just finished Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Weston A. Price. One of the hunting techniques presented involved (only) two men taking down a bull elephant. Over a series of days they cut the tendons in its hind legs to immobilize the creature. Once this was done one of the men would distract the animal while the other hacked off its trunk, causing it to bleed to death. IIRC it was pygmys who did this, no less. It seems pretty wild I'll admit but, Price was a scientist, not a joker.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Renfield.

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[SunkenCiv]

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The Cycle of Cosmic Catastrophes: Flood, Fire, and Famine in the History of Civilization by Richard Firestone, Allen West, and Simon Warwick-Smith

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