Editing Mammoth (section)

==Extinction==
{{Further|Woolly mammoth#Extinction|Columbian mammoth#Extinction}}
Following the end of the [[Last Glacial Maximum]], the range of the woolly mammoth began to contract, disappearing from most of Europe by 14,000 years ago.<ref name=":9">{{Cite journal |last1=Fordham |first1=Damien A. |last2=Brown |first2=Stuart C. |last3=Akçakaya |first3=H. Reşit |last4=Brook |first4=Barry W. |last5=Haythorne |first5=Sean |last6=Manica |first6=Andrea |last7=Shoemaker |first7=Kevin T. |last8=Austin |first8=Jeremy J. |last9=Blonder |first9=Benjamin |last10=Pilowsky |first10=July A. |last11=Rahbek |first11=Carsten |last12=Nogues-Bravo |first12=David |date=January 2022 |editor-last=Coulson |editor-first=Tim |title=Process-explicit models reveal pathway to extinction for woolly mammoth using pattern-oriented validation |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ele.13911 |journal=Ecology Letters |volume=25 |issue=1 |pages=125–137 |doi=10.1111/ele.13911 |pmid=34738712 |bibcode=2022EcolL..25..125F |issn=1461-023X|hdl=11343/299174 |hdl-access=free }}</ref> By the [[Younger Dryas]] (around 12,900-11,700 years [[Before Present]]), woolly mammoths were confined to the northernmost regions of Siberia. This contraction is suggested to have been caused by the warming induced expansion of unfavourable wet [[tundra]] and forest environments at the expense of the preferred dry open [[mammoth steppe]], with the possible additional pressure of human hunting. The last woolly mammoths in mainland Siberia became extinct around 10,000 years ago, during the early [[Holocene]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last1=Dehasque |first1=Marianne |last2=Pečnerová |first2=Patrícia |last3=Muller |first3=Héloïse |last4=Tikhonov |first4=Alexei |last5=Nikolskiy |first5=Pavel |last6=Tsigankova |first6=Valeriya I. |last7=Danilov |first7=Gleb K. |last8=Díez-del-Molino |first8=David |last9=Vartanyan |first9=Sergey |last10=Dalén |first10=Love |last11=Lister |first11=Adrian M. |date=May 2021 |title=Combining Bayesian age models and genetics to investigate population dynamics and extinction of the last mammoths in northern Siberia |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0277379121001207 |journal=Quaternary Science Reviews |volume=259 |pages=106913 |doi=10.1016/j.quascirev.2021.106913|bibcode=2021QSRv..25906913D }}</ref> The final extinction of mainland woolly mammoths may have been driven by human hunting.<ref name=":9" /> [[Relict (biology)|Relict]] populations survived on [[St. Paul, Alaska|Saint Paul]] island in the Bering Strait until around 5,600 years ago, with their extinction likely due to the degradation of freshwater sources,<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Graham |first1=Russell W. |last2=Belmecheri |first2=Soumaya |last3=Choy |first3=Kyungcheol |last4=Culleton |first4=Brendan J. |last5=Davies |first5=Lauren J. |last6=Froese |first6=Duane |last7=Heintzman |first7=Peter D. |last8=Hritz |first8=Carrie |last9=Kapp |first9=Joshua D. |last10=Newsom |first10=Lee A. |last11=Rawcliffe |first11=Ruth |last12=Saulnier-Talbot |first12=Émilie |last13=Shapiro |first13=Beth |last14=Wang |first14=Yue |last15=Williams |first15=John W. |date=2016-08-16 |title=Timing and causes of mid-Holocene mammoth extinction on St. Paul Island, Alaska |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |volume=113 |issue=33 |pages=9310–9314 |doi=10.1073/pnas.1604903113 |doi-access=free |issn=0027-8424 |pmc=4995940 |pmid=27482085|bibcode=2016PNAS..113.9310G }}</ref> and on [[Wrangel Island]] off the coast of Northeast Siberia until around 4,000 years ago.<ref name=":0" /> 

The last reliable dates of the Columbian mammoth date to around 12,500 years ago.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Stuart |first=Anthony J. |url=https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/V/bo25538572.html |title=Vanished Giants: The Lost World of the Ice Age |publisher=University of Chicago Press |location=Chicago, IL |pages=97 |chapter=North America: Mastodon, Ground Sloths, and Sabertooth Cats}}</ref> Columbian mammoths became extinct as part of the [[Late Pleistocene extinctions|end-Pleistocene extinction event]] where most large mammals across the Americas became extinct approximately simultaneously at the end of the Late Pleistocene.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Faith |first1=J. Tyler |last2=Surovell |first2=Todd A. |date=2009-12-08 |title=Synchronous extinction of North America's Pleistocene mammals |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |volume=106 |issue=49 |pages=20641–20645 |doi=10.1073/pnas.0908153106 |doi-access=free |issn=0027-8424 |pmc=2791611 |pmid=19934040|bibcode=2009PNAS..10620641F }}</ref> Hunting of Columbian mammoths by Paleoindians may have been a contributory factor in their extinction.<ref name=":8">{{Cite journal |last=Haynes |first=Gary |date=2022-07-03 |title=Sites in the Americas with Possible or Probable Evidence for the Butchering of Proboscideans |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/20555563.2022.2057834 |journal=PaleoAmerica |volume=8 |issue=3 |pages=187–214 |doi=10.1080/20555563.2022.2057834 |s2cid=251042359 |issn=2055-5563}}</ref> The timing of the extinction of the dwarf Sardinian mammoth ''[[Mammuthus lamarmorai]]'' is difficult to constrain precisely, though the youngest specimen likely dates to sometime around 57–29,000 years ago.<ref name=":12">{{Cite journal |last1=Palombo |first1=Maria Rita |last2=Zedda |first2=Marco |last3=Zoboli |first3=Daniel |date=March 2024 |title=The Sardinian Mammoth's Evolutionary History: Lights and Shadows |journal=Quaternary |language=en |volume=7 |issue=1 |pages=10 |doi=10.3390/quat7010010 |issn=2571-550X |doi-access=free|bibcode=2024Quat....7...10P }}</ref> The youngest records of the [[pygmy mammoth]] (''Mammuthus exillis'') date to around 13,000 years ago, coinciding with the reducing of the area of the Californian Channel Islands as a result of rising sea level, the earliest known humans in the Channel Islands, and climatic change resulting in the decline of the previously dominant conifer forest ecosystems and expansion of scrub and grassland.<ref name=":13">{{Cite journal |last1=Semprebon |first1=Gina M. |last2=Rivals |first2=Florent |last3=Fahlke |first3=Julia M. |last4=Sanders |first4=William J. |last5=Lister |first5=Adrian M. |last6=Göhlich |first6=Ursula B. |date=June 2016 |title=Dietary reconstruction of pygmy mammoths from Santa Rosa Island of California |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1040618215014020 |journal=Quaternary International |language=en |volume=406 |pages=123–136 |doi=10.1016/j.quaint.2015.10.120|bibcode=2016QuInt.406..123S }}</ref>