Wildflowers' Disappearance May Have Doomed Ice Age Giants

Flower power may have meant the difference between life and death for some of the extinct giants of the Ice Age, including the mighty wooly mammoth and wooly rhinoceros.   Scientists who studied DNA preserved in Arctic permafrost sediments and in the remains of such ancient animals have concluded that these Ice Age beasts relied heavily on the protein-rich wildflowers that once blanketed the region.   But dramatic Ice Age climate change caused a huge decline in these plants,...

© La Voix de l'Amérique - dimanche 9 février 2014