Why the world's final mammoths suffered a catastrophic genetic collapse on Wrangel Island
In short: The last mammoths on Earth lived on Wrangel Island, where they faced a phenomenon called mutational meltdown. This video examines how these survivors, once part of a widespread genus, succumbed to genetic decline in their final years.
For millions of years, mammoths were a successful and widespread genus. However, the population that retreated to Wrangel Island became the last of their kind. In their final period, these isolated animals experienced a mutational meltdown, a process where the accumulation of harmful genetic mutations leads to a population's decline and eventual extinction.
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- Summary by Intellect · source: The Island of the Last Surviving Mammoths
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