Woolly mammoths native to what's now the U.S., says study

Darkfrog submitted, created time 4 months 2 days (sciencenow.sciencemag.org)

Recent DNA tests of preserved DNA have allowed us to sort prehistoric mammoths into three groups: One subspecies lived in Eurasia, one in North America, and another ranged through both. For a long time, it was thought that mammoths originated in Eurasia because the fossils that have been found there are older. While this seems to be true, the studies also show that the subspecies that arose in North America crossed the Bering Strait and supplanted the other two a few hundred thousand years ago.

..

2 comments | Blog It | Email It | Keywords: Siberian mammoths mammoths populations fossils DNA paleontology mammals prehistoric mammals

Mammoth hair offers new style of research

june submitted, created time 1 year 3 months (www.bioedonline.org)

Geneticists have pieced together gene sequences from ten Siberian mammoths, using tiny samples of their hair found preserved in the Russian tundra. The result uses some of the oldest DNA ever pieced together — one of the mammoths had lain in the frozen ground for some 50,000 years.

2 comments | Blog It | Email It | Keywords: Siberian mammoths