The largest-ever genetic assessment of the woolly mammoth has yielded new insight into this elephant cousin — an ice age icon — including about its fluffy hair, small ears, cold tolerance, fat storage and even dry ear wax.
Researchers on Friday said they had analyzed the genomes of 23 woolly mammoths — including 16 newly sequenced ones — based on remains preserved in Siberian permafrost. They then compared them to the genomes of 28 modern-day Asian and African elephants.
"The objective was to find those mutations that are present in all mammoths but not in any of the elephants — that is, the genetic adaptations exclusive to the woolly mammoth," said evolutionary geneticist David Diez-del-Molino of the Center for Palaeogenetics in Stockholm, lead author of the study published in the journal Current Biology.