Is this how the woolly mammoth went extinct? Ancient beasts suffered from HAY FEVER, bizarre study claims

By William On Sep 16, 2024

The woolly mammoth is a relative of the elephant and one of the most famous extinct animals in Earth’s history.

How exactly the species became extinct 4,000 years ago remains a mystery. But research has produced an interesting new theory.

European researchers point to plant pollen as the reason mammoths developed allergies that affected their sense of smell.

This made it harder to smell a mate from a distance, which affected the reproductive rate, eventually leading to a decline and collapse of the population.

Scientists have debated the woolly mammoth’s extinction for decades, but the new research confirms prevailing theories, including the theory that the mammoth was hunted by humans.

Woolly mammoths descended from ancestors in Africa and were widespread in northern Europe, Asia and North America during the last Ice Age (file image)

Researchers analyzed tissue samples from mammoth bodies recovered from the permafrost of northeastern Siberia. Pictured, protein samples from mammoth trunk

Woolly Mammoth: Basic Facts

The woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) is an extinct species of elephant found in fossil deposits in Europe, northern Asia, and North America.

The species was known for its large size, fur and impressive tusks, which were more curved than those of modern elephants.

Woolly mammoths thrived during the Pleistocene ice ages, but became extinct after much of their habitat was lost due to warming climates after the last ice age.

The new research was conducted by scientists from the Israeli company SpringStyle, the Russian Academy of Sciences, the University of Catania and the Polytechnic University of Milan in Italy.

The team points out that modern elephants – which share a common ancestor with mammoths – have “the most sensitive sense of smell”.

“During the breeding season, sensitivity to odors is very important for animals,” they write in their article, published in History of the Earth and Biodiversity.

‘The development of allergies to plant pollen… could lead to a decrease in sensitivity to odors in animals during the breeding season.

‘This could explain the extinction of animals due to the decline in sexual intercourse.’

The woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) was one of the last mammoth species to exist before it became extinct about 4,000 years ago.

The enormous mammal, which stood about four metres tall and weighed about six tonnes, was common in northern Europe, Asia and North America during the last Ice Age.

Woolly mammoths lived alongside early humans, hunting them for food and using their bones and tusks to make weapons and art.

The cause of their extinction is uncertain, however, and the role of human hunting and severe climate change is hotly debated.

Woolly mammoths were covered in thick brown hair to keep them warm in freezing temperatures, which often dropped to -50°C.

Modern elephants share a common ancestor with mammoths (Primeelaphas, which lived 7-2 million years ago)

For the new study, researchers analyzed tissue samples from mammoth bodies found in the permafrost of northeastern Siberia.

They found traces of immunoglobulins, also known as antibodies – the Y-shaped proteins used by the immune system to fight infection.

They also discovered allergens, such as plant metabolites, volatile organic compounds and pollen, that the mammoths ingested through the air.

Together, these results suggest indicate the presence of allergic conditions and their associated symptoms, including loss of sense of smell.

It is possible that pollen-rich plants that flourished as the climate warmed compounded the problem for woolly mammoths.

“These changes in allergic responses of mammoths during climate change likely led to a decline in the mammoth population and, as a result, to their disappearance,” the authors say.

Woolly mammoths were elephant-like animals that evolved on the Arctic peninsula of Eurasia about 600,000 years ago. The last mammoths died out about 4,000 years ago – more recently than the construction of the pyramids at Giza, Egypt

The photo shows a frozen woolly mammoth calf ‘Dima’, as displayed at the Zoological Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia; note the fur on the legs

A 39,000-year-old female baby woolly mammoth named Yuka from the Siberian permafrost is unveiled to the media at an exhibition in Yokohama, a suburb of Tokyo on July 9, 2013

According to the study authors, no one has previously published this allergy theory or detected fragments of immunoglobulins in mammoths.

However, they do acknowledge the prevailing theories about why the species became extinct, including “hunting of mammoths by primitive humans.”

The debate is likely to continue for a long time, with physical evidence providing a compelling set of arguments.

In 2015, British researchers claimed to have put an end to the debate by comparing species extinctions in different areas to the spread of humans.

They blamed humans after discovering that prehistoric humans quickly became extinct as they spread across continents and islands.

Another genetic study in 2008 found that climate change and disease were the most likely causes of extinction.

More recently, a 2021 study concluded that melting icebergs due to rapid climate warming wiped out the vegetation the mammoths depended on.

How Did the Woolly Mammoth Become Extinct? Here Are the Major Theories

There are several theories about what caused the extinction of Ice Age giants such as the woolly mammoth.

Mammoths are thought to have lived on Earth for about 200,000 years, but became extinct 10,000 years ago.

At that time, the planet underwent a major climate change that is thought to have led to the shrinkage of their habitat.

Because they could no longer find the food they needed, their population shrank and they became increasingly isolated.

A 2008 study found that climate change resulting from the end of the last ice age caused their range to shrink from 3 million square miles to 310,000 square miles.

Some researchers have suggested that the distribution of forestswhich flooded the vast areas of frozen grassland and tundra where mammoths thrived, leading to their extinction.

Climate change opened up large parts of the Northern Hemisphere to humans, allowing these groups to spread more widely across North America, Asia, and Europe.

Many blame overhunting by humans to finally put an end to the declining populations of megafauna, such as mammoths.

More recently, scientists have theorized that sudden climate changes, known as the Younger Dyas period, caused many large animal species to become extinct.

It is thought that this period of cooling was caused by the collapse of the North American ice sheets in the Atlantic Ocean, causing the seas to cool dramatically.

Others have suggested that this was caused by a large explosion of a impact of an asteroid or comet which scattered debris all over the world.

The woolly mammoth, a relative of the modern Asian elephant, was common in North America and Siberia and became extinct about 4,000 years ago.

They were covered with thick brown hair to keep them warm in the freezing temperatures, which often dropped to -50°C.

The woolly mammoths were about 13ft long with a fur that reached a length of 3ft. They lived in the Pleistocene, which began 1.8 million years ago but ended about 10,000 years ago with the last ice age.

Woolly mammoths and modern elephants are closely related, sharing 99.4 percent of their genes.