ANN ARBOR, Mich., May 7 (UPI) -- Humans may have played a part in the disappearance of mastodons after the last ice age by hunting and killing the most dominant males, a U.S. researcher says.
Killing the biggest males for food would have left younger males engaged in pitched battles to replace them, violent affairs that could have affected the normally stable animal societies, University of Michigan paleontologist Daniel Fisher said.