Mammoths' extinction linked to climate change

London: By analysing mammoth remains found in Condover, Shropshire, in Britain, scientists concluded that the woolly mammoths in Europe were probably wiped out by the climate at the end of the last ice age rather than hunted to extinction.

"Mammoths are conventionally believed to have become extinct in north-western Europe about 21,000 years ago during the main ice advance, known as the last glacial maximum," Adrian Lister, of the Natural History Museum, in London, who led the study, said. "Our new radiocarbon dating of the Condover mammoths changes that by showing that mammoths returned to Britain and survived until around 14,000 years ago."

The last ice age occurred between 75,000 and 12,000 years ago. A particularly cold period started 21,000 years ago with ice sheets expanding all over Britain, leading to the mammoths' disappearance from this part of Europe.