Musk ox population decline due to climate, not to humans, study finds
A team of scientists has discovered that the drastic decline in Arctic musk ox populations that began roughly 12,000 years ago was due to a warming climate rather than to human hunting. 'This is the first study to use ancient musk ox DNA collected from across the animal's former geographic range to test for human impacts on musk ox populations,' said Beth Shapiro, the Shaffer Career Development assistant professor of biology at Penn State University and one of the team's leaders. 'We found that, although human and musk ox populations overlapped in many regions across the globe, humans probably were not responsible for the decline and eventual extinction of musk oxen across much of their former range.' The team's findings were published in the early on-line edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences during the week ending Friday 12 March...