14 DAY TRIAL // According to a new scientific study, published in the latest issue of the Geological Journal, the woolly mammoth persisted in the territory that is now the United Kingdom 6,000 years longer than first estimated. The new research, which analyzed several fossils found in Shropshire in 1986, determined that the large beasts were part of the island's wildlife some 14,000 years ago, and that it must have been the expansion of forests that eventually led to their extinction, as grazing fields nearly disappeared.
Natural History Museum researcher Dr. Adrian Lister, the leader of the new investigation and the author of the study, told the BBC News that, while most mammoths were believed to have disappeared from Northern Europe between 19,000 and 21,000 years ago, the ones in Southern Britain managed to endure for an additional 5,000 to 7,000 years.
The bulk of the beasts disappeared in an event known as the last glacial maximum (LGM). But they made a comeback on the islands, and managed to endure a few thousand years more, until they were wiped out by growing forests and increased hunting.
The fossils recovered from Condover, Shropshire, were recently analyzed using a new type of carbon dating, which allows for a very accurate age identification. “The big issue with all radiocarbon dating is contamination from different sources. You have to be sure the sample you extracted from the fossil is absolutely pure,” the scientist said.
“There have to be methods for purifying the sample that is extracted from the bone. In the last few years, a new method of purification has been developed at Oxford University called ultra-filtration. Various bone specimens that were dated before they developed this new purification method have been shown to be out by a significant amount. Not always, but often. What they do is re-run the sample using the new method and obtain a more accurate date. That's what we did here,” Lister added.
The reign of the mammoths on the plains of Europe and Siberia stretched from the Pliocene Epoch, some 4.8 million years ago, to 14,000 years ago. The massive beasts roamed that cold landscape of the Old Continent, grazing on widespread grasslands, which were, at the time, not invaded by forests.
As the planet's climate gradually warmed, the fields came to be covered in forests, which started spreading North. As their sources of food diminished, the mammoths eventually died out, with the last members of the species believed to have been killed by humans in Siberia.
“It's driven by climate change, but it's not the climate – in the main – that affects these animals. The climate affects the vegetation and the vegetation affects them. These were grass-eating animals,” Dr. Lister concluded.