genetics of mammoths and elephants

DNA has been analysed from a woolly mammoth hairball, as well as 17 other mammoth reveals that there were two genetically different species.

One was extinct before human arrived in the area.

The first draft genetic code of mammoths has been unveiled(19th november 2008).

It suggests that mammoths split into two species about 2 million years ago, one of which become extinct about 45,000 years. the other about 10,000 years ago.

The mammoth genome was read at a cost of $1million and revealed 3.3 billion letters of the mammoth's genome.

The mammoth's genome differs from that of the African elephant by only 0.6%.

Haemoglobin found in a 43,000 years old woolly mammoth differs from that of an asian elephant in three genetic sequences.