{
  "id": 19086,
  "title": "Ice Age Humans Mostly Killed Female Woolly Mammoths, Suggests Ancient DNA",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/07/31/ice-age-humans-mostly-killed-female-woolly-mammoths-suggests-ancient",
  "topic": "science",
  "section": "Science",
  "published": "2026-07-31T17:41:16.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Smithsonian",
    "slug": "smithsonian",
    "url": "https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/ice-age-humans-mostly-killed-female-woolly-mammoths-suggests-ancient-dna-180989241/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "A recent study has revealed that ancient humans primarily hunted female woolly mammoths, according to ancient DNA analysis. Prior to their extinction, mammoths were a crucial resource for Ice Age hunters as they provided food, clothing, and ivory. Archaeologists have long puzzled over massive accumulations of mammoth bones, with some attributing them to human hunting and others to natural causes. To investigate further, an international team of researchers analyzed DNA from 521 woolly mammoths, 100 of which were found in 11 human-associated bone accumulation sites dated between 20,000 and 30,000 years ago, and 421 mammoths from natural deposition sites across Europe and North America. The findings, published in the journal Current Biology, indicate that males comprised 66 percent of mammoths recovered from natural settings, while females made up 70 percent of those from human-associated bone accumulation sites. The researchers are still uncertain as to why this disparity exists, but possible explanations include the predictability of female mammoth movement, the ease of trapping solitary males in natural settings, and the genetic condition known as Turner syndrome, which has been found in mammoths for the first time. While the study provides new insights into ancient human-mammoth interactions, it also raises the possibility that humans may have contributed to mammoth extinction.",
  "summary": "After analyzing more than 500 mammoth bones, researchers found that ancient humans disproportionately hunted female mammoths for reasons still unknown",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}