The findings of a new study have showed that extinction of several large mammals during the last ice age was the result of dramatic temperature shifts linked to climate change. The research has helped understand that rising temperatures and abrupt climate shifts led to the demise of woolly mammoths, cave lions and short-faced bears.

The study pointed to jump in temperatures during Late Pleistocene. Global temperatures spiked by up to 29 degrees, or 16 degrees C, in a few decades. Large mammals soon went extinct because of increased temperatures as a devastating effect took place on both their bodies and food stock.

Sharp temperature spikes, dubbed as interstadials, had a negative effect on global rainfall and vegetation patterns, said Alan Cooper, lead author of the study and researcher at the University of Adelaide's Australian Center for Ancient DNA in Australia.

For the study, the researchers developed computer models, helping them understand what effects colder periods recorded in the Late Pleistocene had on large animal of that period.

The model clearly showed that the effect was devastating as caused large die-offs at a local level and extinction of several species at a planetary level.

Humans also played a role, though not as significant as temperature rise, in disappearance of large animals. Large animals struggled to migrate to cooler conditions because human settlements disrupted their environments. Hunters were also increasingly killing them.

"The high-resolution view we gained through this approach clearly showed a strong relationship between warming events and megafaunal extinctions", said the researchers.