Study shows prehistoric people targeted female mammoths

July 31 : Woolly mammoths were a favorite hunting target for Ice Age people in Eurasia and North America for many reasons. A single animal would provide a large amount of meat and fat. Its hide could be used for clothing. Its bones and tusks could be shaped into tools, weapons and art. And the largest bones could be used as building material for shelters or other structures.New research shows that these prehistoric people were highly selective in the mammoths they hunted. Using genetic data from bones accumulated by people at 11 sites in Poland, Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany and Russia, scientists have discovered that they mainly killed female mammoths.Some 70 per cent of the mammoths whose bones were studied from these accumulation sites were females, with 30 per cent males. In com