09.05.08
New evidence links Siberian, North American mammals
The last of the iconic Siberian woolly mammoths originated in North America, report Canadian sleuths who are overturning classic tales about the shaggy beast.
Genetic material extracted from bits of bones and hair shows the mammoth trekked both ways across the Bering land bridge that connected Alaska and Siberia during ice ages, say Hendrik Poinar and his colleagues at McMaster University. And their DNA analysis indicates the last of the creatures to survive in Siberia were not natives.
North American mammoths had migrated back across the land bridge and replaced the dwindling Siberian populations, Mr. Poinar says.