Woolly Mammoth's Flower Diet may have Caused Animals Extinction

Though we've never seen this mammoth species alive and in person, most of us are familiar with the majestic extinct elephant genus-the woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius.) Yet recent research suggests that one of earths largest, hairiest creatures may have gone extinct based on its tiny flower diet.

According to researchers at the University of Copenhagen, an analysis of frozen arctic soil and mammoth feces suggests that these early vegans depended on a diet of tiny flowers for their essential daily protein. Unfortunately, when the flowers disappeared with the last ice age, so did their diet and their life.

Lead study author Eske Willerslev of the university notes that the climate-warming theory may have played an ultimate role in their extinction.

It's estimated that 10,000 years ago, the flowering woody plants known as forbs-including yarrow, mumbs, sagebrush and tansies-all disappeared from Arctic steppes that became dominated by grasses. The vegetation was "a likely key reason for the decline and extinction of many megafuana species," he said, via National Geographic.

As mammals were previously thought to thrive on grass, researchers found this particularly perplexing.

For their study, they sampled permafrost cores dating back to 50,000 years ago from 17 locations in northern Alaska, Canada and Russia. They found that DNA signatures in the cores indicated that the flower species and the tiny roundworms associated with them in the soil had previously taken over the grasses. Researchers also found that the animals favored the forbs via an analysis from stomach contents and scat of those who had lived in the area.

The study notes that when the last ice age hit its peak around 20,000 eyars ago, the diversity of all the plants in the Artic declined, except for flowering ones which continued to thrive. However, the ending of the ice age also brought on a wetter climate that made a better environment for grasses.

"This is the likely reason for the vegetation change in the Arctic into a system dominated by shrubs and grasses we see today," Willerslev said.

However, Daniel Fisher, a paleontologist at the University of Michigan believes that the disappearance of the mammoths and the flowers may have been caused by an opposite effect. As the creatures are estimated to have gone extinct on Siberia's Wrangel Island around 3,700 years ago, Fisher said he believes, via NPR, that the flowers needed the mammoth's feces-which makes an excellent fertilizer-to properly grow. 

"It becomes difficult to sort out what part of it is cause, and what part of it is effect," Fisher said, via the news organization.

What do you think?

More information regarding the study can be found via the journal Nature.