Genetic mutation may have caused extinction of Wrangel Island mammoths, study says

The extinction of Wrangel Island mammoths was likely caused by genetic mutations that these animals lived with, according to a new study published in Genome Biology and Evolution. It cited several reasons for the decline of the mammoths that lived on Russia’s Wrangel Island, including “reduced genetic diversity,” which led to mutated genes.

Researchers compared the DNA of a Wrangel Island mammoth with the DNA of an Asian elephant, as well as two other mammoths from larger populations. The Wrangel Island mammoths had genetic mutations that were not present in the other mammoths or the Asian elephant.

The Wrangel Island mammoths had diabetes, low sperm counts, and were unable to pick up on certain scents, research revealed. Population decline also contributed to the animals’ issues, the research revealed.  

This isn’t the first time scientists have studied the Wrangel Island mammoths. The 2020 study refers to a 2017 study that looked at genetic mutations in that mammoth population. “The last mammoths may have been pretty sick and unable to smell flowers,” said Vincent Lynch, evolutionary biologist at the University of Buffalo. “So, that’s just sad.”

In a press release from the University of Buffalo, Lynch explained what set their research apart from previous explorations of the Wrangel Island mammoths’ genes.

“The key innovation of our paper is that we actually resurrect Wrangel Island mammoth genes to test whether their mutations actually were damaging (most mutations don’t actually do anything),” he said. “Beyond suggesting that the last mammoths were probably an unhealthy population, it’s a cautionary tale for living species threatened with extinction: If their populations stay small, they too may accumulate deleterious mutations that can contribute to their extinction.”

The goal of this study was to determine whether or not this mammoth population’s genes were functioning properly, and the study included resurrection of a mammoth’s mutated genes.