Woolly mammoths were still alive when the Egyptian pyramids were being built.
Most mammoths died out around 10,000 years ago, but a small population survived on Wrangel Island in the Arctic Ocean until roughly 2000 BC. The Great Pyramid was completed around 2560 BC.
Why is this true?
Isolated on an island with no predators, the Wrangel mammoths lasted for thousands of years but gradually lost genetic diversity. Their DNA shows harmful mutations piling up before the population finally vanished.
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