Unraveling the Genetic Evolution of Woolly Mammoths
Originally Published 2 years ago — by Phys.org
Researchers compared the genomes of woolly mammoths with modern-day elephants to identify genes that were "highly evolved" in woolly mammoths. They found that many of the woolly mammoth's trademark features, including their woolly coats and large fat deposits, were already genetically encoded in the earliest woolly mammoths, but these and other traits became more defined over the species' 700,000+ year existence. They also identified a gene with several mutations that may have been responsible for the woolly mammoth's miniscule ears.