The woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) was a key species on the open landscapes of Ice Age Europe and North America, living here roughly from 110,000 to 12,000 years ago. The study's lead author, TalTech Institute of Geology PhD student and junior researcher Ivan Krivokorin, said: "This period was marked by glaciation and generally cold and dry climatic conditions, with steppe-like landscapes dominated by grasses and herbaceous plants."

From 27,000 to 23,000 ago, the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) occurred, when massive continental ice sheets covered even the eastern Baltic Sea. The ice retreated again from present-day Latvia about 15,000 years ago and from Estonia around 13,000 years ago, revealing a new but constantly evolving habitat for the mammoths.

Estonian mammoths

Scientists have long been aware that some of Europe's last mammoths inhabited what is now Estonia. The best evidence comes from the area around Puurmani, Jõgeva County, where molars which have been discovered have been radiocarbon dated to just 12,600–11,200 before present. This makes the region one of the best places to study the fate of the last of Europe's mammoths and the environment they lived in. TalTech geologists did just that using multiple methods — all better to understand what led to the disappearance of one of the continent's most iconic species in this region.

To reconstruct the environmental conditions of that time, the researchers studied two time periods: before (50,000–27,000 years ago) and after (14,300–11,300 years before present) the LGM. "One method was pollen analysis, in which we examined microscopic pollen grains preserved in sediments," Professor Siim Veski said. Different plants produce pollen which is unique to them, allowing researchers to determine which species dominated the landscape.

The team also studied plant macrofossils such as seeds and leaves. According to Veski, these provided clues about what grew directly at a sampling site. By combining these data sets, the researchers could create computer-model reconstructions of the former vegetation.
The researchers also analyzed stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes extracted from mammoth teeth. "The stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes isolated from dentin and bone provided us with an overview of changes in vegetation in the area and of the studied animals' diet and feeding habits," Veski added.

Warming climate led to food scarcity

The study's results showed that the environment responded very differently to climate changes before and after the LGM. Before the LGM, the climate was colder but more stable. During this period, the Eastern Baltic region was covered in open and dry steppe-tundra, rich in grasses, herbs, and shrubs — ideal food for mammoths. This stable and food-rich environment is reflected in the fact that significantly more mammoth remains have been found from that period than from the later one.

After the retreat of the continental ice sheet, the situation changed dramatically. "After the LGM, extensive climate changes caused rapid shifts in the landscape, such as the spread of forests from northern Latvia into Estonia," noted Krivokorin. Mammoths briefly caught some respite thanks to a temporary colder period around 12,850 years ago which restored tundra landscapes more suited to them. But again around 11,700 years ago, a sharp warming period began, marking the start of the current interglacial — the Holocene, which we live in today.

A key component of tundra vegetation, Eightpetal mountain-avens (Dryas octopetala), rapidly disappeared from the landscape, to be replaced by fast-spreading birch and pine forests. "The Estonian mammoth population found itself in increasingly poor conditions. Suitable food vanished, and habitable areas shrank — due to forestation in the south and the Baltic Ice Lake in the north," Krivokorin explained.

This conclusion was supported by isotope analysis. The composition of teeth from mammoths that lived before the LGM indicated a much richer diet than that of the Puurmani mammoths who lived after the Ice Age. This clearly points to a deterioration in feeding conditions caused by the replacement of open, biodiverse steppes with less suitable forested environments.

According to the researchers, the pressure of hunting by human beings did not play a significant role in the extinction of mammoths in Estonia. The last mammoths here died out around 800 years before the appearance of the first known human settlement, the village of Pulli, Pärnu County. The main cause of their extinction was, in other words, rapid environmental changes. "As the climate warmed up, their once abundant food sources disappeared, and expanding forests restricted their ability to roam. The loss of habitats ultimately contributed to their extinction," Krivokorin noted.

The mammoths' fate offers valuable lessons for today, researchers say, as climate change and human activity threaten the habitats of many species. "By studying the past, scientists can better predict how ecosystems might respond to current and future environmental changes, offering solutions for the protection of endangered species," the researcher added.

The scientific study on Estonia's mammoths was published in English in the journal "Land."

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