Emily Chan
At the end of the last ice age, a spike in the growth of vegetation may have created so much pollen that woolly mammoths were driven to extinction.
The mammoths possibly suffered from pollen allergies, which inhibited their sense of smell—a crucial form of communication for the creatures.
Global warming caused more vegetation to grow, triggering an increase in pollen. Allergies from the pollen may have prevented the mammoths from sniffing each other during the breeding season. This would’ve led to a decrease in the mammoth population and, eventually, extinction.
“One of the possible mechanisms for the extinction of animals during climate change could be a violation of the sense of smell due to the development of allergies when the flora changes,” wrote the researchers in charge of the study.
“The purpose of this work is to propose a new evolutionary mechanism for the extinction of mammoths and other animals based on the disruption of communication.”
Woolly mammoths lived during the Pleistocene epoch, which occurred 2.6 million to 11,700 years ago.
Around 10,000 years ago, they disappeared, although a small group persisted on the remote Wrangel Island located off of northeastern Russia until 4,000 years ago.
It is thought that a combination of inbreeding, being hunted by humans, and significant shifts in vegetation all drove the mammoths to extinction.
However, the extent to which each factor contributed to the species’ demise is heavily debated among experts.
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