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 decline correlates with the end of the last Ice Age, when global temperatures rose rapidly. As forests expanded and grasslands shrank, the mammoth’s primary habitat—cold, dry steppe—disappeared. Second, genetic studies of fossil remains show a dramatic loss of genetic diversity well before human populations expanded into their range, indicating that populations were already dwindling due to environmental stress. Finally, archaeological records reveal that early human hunting tools were not efficient enough to kill large, thick-skinned mammals like mammoths, and human population densities were too low to exert significant pressure.
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The lecture challenges the reading's claim that climate change, not human hunting, drove the woolly mammoth to extinction. First, while it is true that warming occurred, mammoths had survived previous interglacial periods with similar temperature increases. What was different this time was the arrival of skilled human hunters with advanced weapons, such as spears with stone points. Second, the genetic diversity decline cited in the reading actually began only after humans arrived in the mammoth's habitat, not before. This suggests that hunting, not climate, caused the population bottleneck. Third, the reading underestimates human impact. Even if individual hunters were inefficient, their use of drive traps—stampeding herds off cliffs—could kill dozens at once. Moreover, low human populations can still drive large animals extinct, as seen with the moa in New Zealand and the dodo in Mauritius, where small human groups caused rapid extinction. Thus, the reading's evidence is misleading.
📝 Writing Prompt Summarize the points made in the lecture, being sure to explain how they cast doubt on the specific points made in the reading passage.
📊 TOEFL Integrated Writing Rubric
Content Accuracy: Accurately capture the relationship between lecture and reading
Information Completeness: Cover all key counter-arguments from the lecture
Structure & Coherence: Logical organization and progression
Language Use: Grammar, vocabulary, expression accuracy
Scored 0-30 based on holistic scoring (original 0-5, scaled to 30).
