Animals_806

A trio of woolly mammoths trudges over snow covered hills. Behind them, mountains with snow covered peaks rise above dark green forests of fir trees. 3D Rendering

Mammoths and other extinct Ice Age giants clung on longer than previously thought, DNA analysis suggests.

(CNN) Mammoths and other giant creatures of the Ice Age such as woolly rhinos survived longer than scientists thought, coexisting with humans for tens of thousands of years before they vanished for good. That's according to the results of an ambitious 10-year research project that analyzed DNA from hundreds of soil samples across the Arctic.

The scientists involved in the project collected 535 samples of permafrost and sediment from frozen lakes, often in extremely cold locations from across Siberia, Alaska, Canada and Scandinavia, in 73 locations where the remains of mammoths have been found.

Analysis of DNA contained in the soil showed that mammoths were living in mainland Siberia 3,900 years ago -- after the Great Pyramid of Giza was built in Egypt and the megaliths of Stonehenge were erected.

Most woolly mammoths were previously thought to have died off about 10,000 years ago, except for a very tiny population that survived on remote islands off Siberia.

Woolly rhinos, the researchers said, were still roaming around the Arctic 9,800 years ago. Earlier studies said they went extinct about 14,000 years ago.

Instead, extinction came when the last areas of Mammoth Steppe -- a unique ecosystem in the Arctic that doesn't exist today -- gave way to peatland as the climate became warmer and wetter.