In 2024, researchers challenged a decades-old theory about the extinction of woolly mammoths that they didn't die out the way we thought

Scientists now believe a sudden event caused the extinction of the last woolly mammoths. These mammoths became isolated on Wrangel Island after the ice age ended. A new study analyzed mammoth genomes from this remote Siberian location. Researchers propose disease or environmental change killed the isolated population. This research offers a departure from previous extinction hypotheses.