This led a Mexican-European research cooperation to become interested in finding DNA from elsewhere in the reach of the Columbian Mammoet, which extended to Central America. The researchers focused on the basin of Mexico, which would probably be found well south of where woolly mammoths would probably be found. Although the warmer terrain generally tends to break down DNA faster, the team had a few things in his favor. To begin with, there were many bones. The Mexico pelvis has been heavily built over the centuries and many gigantic remains have been discovered, including more than 100 people during the construction of the International Airport of Mexico City.
Moreover, the team focused entirely on the mitochondrial genome. Unlike the two sets of chromosomes in each cell, a typical cell can have hundreds of mitochondria, which can each have dozens of copies of the genome. So although the much smaller mitochondria do not give so many details about origin, they are at least likely to survive at high enough levels to offer something to work with.
And indeed they did that. All in all, the researchers obtained 61 new mitochondrial taken from Mexico's mammoths from the 83 samples they tested. Of these, 28 were considered high sufficient quality to perform an analysis.
Off itself
By building a pedigree with the help of this genetic data, together with that of other Colombian and woolly mammoth samples, the researchers could possibly determine how different populations were related. And one thing became very clear almost immediately: they were in a very strange location on that tree.
To start with, they all went together in one block, although there were three different groups inside that block. But the placement of that block in the larger pedigree was remarkably strange. To begin with, there were woolly mammoths on either side of it, suggesting that the origin was a spur of woolly mammoths. That would be logical if all Columbian mammoths together with the Mexican. But they don't do that. Some Columbian mammoths from much further to the north are actually more closely related to woolly mammoths than with the Mexican mammoths.
