
Jul 31, 2026
✦Open Access Government
Ancient DNA reveals Ice Age humans selectively harvested female mammoths
An international team analysed ancient DNA from over 500 woolly mammoths to study Ice Age human sites. The study, published in Current Biology, showed that these sites are overwhelmingly female. This confirmed that human hunting, not natural die-offs, shaped these bone accumulations. Researchers also found a rare genetic condition in one.