Male mammoths were more likely to die in silly ways
Study posits that young males were more prone to risky behaviour after leaving protection of the herd upon puberty
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SWALLOWED by a sinkhole. Washed away by a mudflow. Drowned after falling through thin ice.
These are the fates that many unlucky mammoths suffered in Siberia thousands of years ago. Their well-preserved fossils have provided paleobiologists with insight into their prehistoric lives. Now, after performing genetic analysis on the remains from the furry victims of natural traps, a team of scientists made a striking discovery: Most were male.
"In many species, males tend to do somewhat stupid things that end up getting them killed in silly ways, and it appears that may have been true for mammoths also," said Love Dalén, an evolutionary biologist from the Swedish Museum of Natural History.
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