Woolly mammoths (Mammuthus primigenius) were among the top prizes for human Ice Age hunters. Our ancestors also may have specifically targeted female woolly mammoths, according to a study published today in the journal Current Biology. Loners vs. herdsThe team analyzed genome data extracted from roughly 30,000 to 20,000 year-old woolly mammoth bones. In total, they studied the remains of 521 woolly mammoths found across key Ice Age sites across present-day Europe, Asia, and North America. Projectile points embedded in mammoth bones show that Upper Palaeolithic (about 50,000 to 12,000 years ago) hunter-gatherers did sometimes directly hunt mammoths.