Scientists have pieced together fragments of the mammoth’s genes, creating a complete mitochondrial genome made up of 5,000 DNA characters from this extinct species. This breakthrough enhances our understanding of the evolutionary relationships within the elephant family.
Research indicates that the mammoth is most closely related to the Asian elephant, rather than its African relatives. These three groups diverged from a common ancestor approximately 6 million years ago, and it was only about half a million years later that the Asian elephant and mammoth “parted ways.”
“We have finally clarified the controversial origins of the mammoth species that has puzzled researchers for nearly a decade,” said the lead researcher Michael Hofreiter from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany.
Mammoths roamed Africa, Europe, Asia, and North America around 1.6 million years ago and went extinct approximately 10,000 years ago at the beginning of the Quaternary period. The woolly mammoth, Mammuthus primigenius, was adapted to the extreme cold of the Ice Age with its thick fur covering its entire body.
Previously, DNA from several extinct species during that era (preserved in permafrost) has also been analyzed, but not as comprehensively as in the mammoth study.
“This is the longest DNA sequence decoded to date from samples dating back to the Quaternary period,” Professor Hofreiter stated.
Approximately 46 DNA sequences have been assembled and ordered, creating a complete mitochondrial DNA map of the mammoth—circular genetic material found outside the cell nucleus. This type of gene is inherited matrilineally, with small but frequent changes. Through this, scientists can look back into the past and study the evolutionary relationships between different species.
Before the mammoth, the moa—a flightless bird that went extinct around 500 years ago—also had its mitochondrial DNA completely decoded.
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