Research reveals how inbred woolly mammoths survived for 6,000 years [Video]

By Stephen Beech via SWNS

The last woolly mammoths were inbred – but not doomed to extinction, according to new research.

Scientists say the last population of the iconic beasts was isolated on Wrangel Island off the coast of Siberia 10,000 years ago, when sea levels rose and cut it off from the mainland.

Now a new genomic analysis has revealed that the isolated mammoths, who lived on the island for the subsequent 6,000 years, originated from at most eight individuals but grew to 200 to 300 within 20 generations.

The findings, published in the journal Cell, reveal that the Wrangel Island mammoths’ genomes showed signs of inbreeding and low genetic diversity, but not to the extent that it can explain their ultimate – and still mysterious – extinction.

Senior author Dr. Love Dalen, an evolutionary geneticist at Stockholm University, Sweden, said: “We can now confidently reject the idea that the population was simply too small and that they were …