Genome-Based Sexing Provides Clues about Behavior and Social Structure in the Woolly Mammoth

Summary While present-day taxa are valuable proxies for understanding the biology of extinct species, it is also crucial to examine physical remains in order to obtain a more comprehensive view of their behavior, social structure, and life histories [1, 2]. For example, information on demographic parameters such as age distribution and sex ratios in fossil assemblages can be used to accurately infer socioecological patterns (e.g., [3]). Here we use genomic data to determine the sex of 98 woolly mammoth ( Mammuthus primigenius ) specimens in order to infer social and behavioral patterns in the last 60,000 years of the species' existence. We report a significant excess of males among the identified samples (69% versus 31%; p