Ice Age Hunters Preferred Female Mammoths
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- David Díez del Molino and colleagues at Stockholm's Centre for Palaeogenetics sequenced DNA from 448 mammoths and combined it with 73 previously sequenced specimens, determining the sex of 521 ancient animals from 11 human-related sites and natural accumulations across Eurasia and North America.
- Female mammoths made up roughly 70% of specimens at human-associated sites dating to 20,000–30,000 years ago, while males accounted for 67% of naturally accumulated remains — a near-mirror reversal suggesting deliberate targeting rather than opportunistic scavenging.
- Paleolithic hunters likely exploited the fact that mammoth herds, like modern elephant herds, moved along predictable seasonal routes while males roamed randomly, according to co-author Hannah Moots, making females easier to ambush in the same location repeatedly.
- Retired anthropologist Pat Shipman called the pattern 'amazing,' noting that female elephants shield calves with their bodies — making mothers easier to kill and what University of Alaska Fairbanks researcher Audrey Rowe called 'the path of least resistance.'
- The team also identified a mammoth with XX/X0 mosaicism, the genetic basis of Turner syndrome in humans — the first sex chromosome mutation ever documented in an extinct species, per the German Archaeological Institute's Julia Gresky.
- Rowe said the findings carry a darker implication: 'the elephant in the room… is a new line of evidence that humans contributed to the extinction of mammoths,' by unknowingly thinning the herd's reproductive base over generations.
Why it matters: Across 521 specimens from 20,000–30,000 years ago, this is the first large-scale genetic sexing to show Paleolithic humans preferentially killed female mammoths — a selection pressure that, sustained over centuries, would have disproportionately damaged the species' reproductive capacity. The dataset also yielded the first documented sex chromosome mutation in any extinct animal, expanding what mammoth paleogenetics can reveal beyond population history.
