Article: Scientists study what made mammoths disappear from Earth.

Byline: Tom Avril

PHILADELPHIA _ The shaggy-coated giant with the long, curved tusks has not walked the earth for thousands of years. Fundamental details about the woolly mammoth _ in particular the reason it died out _ remain a subject of debate.

Now scientists say they've found a way to unlock key secrets of the big mammal by making use of a defining characteristic: its woolly fur.

Hair shafts taken from 10 of the giant beasts yielded a surprising amount of undamaged genetic material, even from one specimen that had been sitting in a room-temperature museum exhibit for 200 years. The researchers, six of them from Pennsylvania State ...

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