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Monday, November 23, 2009

Photo: Siberian Woolly Mammoths Had North American Blood


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Cousins of present-day elephants, woolly mammoths are believed to have descended from African mammoths that traveled north through Eurasia and grew "woolly" long hair to survive the harsh climate of Siberia.

But the last mammoths in Siberia about 10,000 years ago carried mostly North American genes, not the genes of the original Eurasian population, according to a new study.

Illustration by Charles R. Knight