News > World's oldest DNA sheds light on how mammoths evolved: Study

World's oldest DNA sheds light on how mammoths evolved: Study

Business Standard | 18/02/2021 07:53 PM | Click to read full article

The findings of the new research revealed that the Columbian mammoth that inhabited North America during the last ice age was a hybrid between the woolly mammoth and a previously unknown mammoth lineage.

Based on the current study, the scientists said the oldest specimen, which was approximately 1.2 million years old, belonged to a previously unknown genetic lineage of mammoth. According to the scientists, it was mammoths that belonged to the Krestovka lineage that colonised North America some 1.5 million years ago.

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