The extinction of mammoths in North America at the end of the last ice age was not caused by a change in the ecosystem: itâ??s what triggered the changes, a new study suggests.T he study also elucidates a possible cause for the demise of mammoths and mastodons 15,000 years ago, and researchers say that the expanded incidence of fire in the landscape – suspected of being caused by human arrival – only appeared after the extinction.
“For the first time, we have a very close linkage between this major ecological event and some evidence about the consequences of this extinction,” said John Williams, a professor at the University of Wisconsin in Madison and the senior author of the study published in the U.S. journal, Science.