Muskoxen Survived Extinction, Lost Genetic Variability

Around 10,000 years ago the Pleistocene period came to an end and it took many large mammals, such as the mammoth, with it. One animal that survived this extinction is the tundra muskox, but it did so at the cost of decreased genetic diversity.

Researchers from the American Museum of Natural History teamed up with researchers in Russia and the Netherlands to sequence samples of ancient muskoxen DNA and compared these to the DNA of modern muskoxen. They found two sets of genes, one from surviving muskoxen and one from extinct, and that variation among modern muskoxen (Ovibus moschatus) is very diminished.