The extinction of the woolly mammoth has long been attributed to human overhunting, but recent evidence suggests that climate change was the primary driver. First, the timing of mammoth extinction aligns closely with the end of the last Ice Age, when global temperatures rose rapidly. Paleoclimatic data show that mammoth populations declined sharply as forests replaced grasslands, reducing their primary food source. Second, genetic studies of mammoth remains reveal a severe loss of genetic diversity just before extinction, indicating that populations were already shrinking due to environmental stress, not sudden human hunting pressure. Third, human hunting tools of that era—spears and arrows—were unlikely to penetrate the thick hide and fur of adult mammoths, making hunting inefficient and rare. Therefore, the extinction was a natural consequence of post-glacial environmental change, not human activity.
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The reading’s claims are unconvincing. First, while climate changed, mammoths had survived previous interglacial warm periods without extinction, so climate alone cannot explain their demise. In contrast, the arrival of humans on each new landmass—such as North America and Wrangel Island—coincided with rapid extinction, a pattern that strongly implicates hunting. Second, the genetic diversity loss cited in the reading actually supports human hunting, not refutes it: as humans killed off small, isolated herds, the remaining populations became inbred, which is exactly what the genetic data show. Third, the reading underestimates hunting technology. Evidence from kill sites shows that early humans used strategic methods—such as driving mammoths into pits or using fire and coordinated attacks—to overcome size advantages. Moreover, even occasional hunting of young or weakened individuals could have driven populations to extinction, especially when combined with slow reproduction rates. Thus, human activities were the decisive factor.
📝 写作提示 Summarize the points made in the lecture, being sure to explain how they cast doubt on the specific points made in the reading passage.
