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Early signs of human settlement in what is now Alaska closely tracked the movements of female woolly mammoths that lived 14,000 years ago, according to a new study. During its lifetime, the animal traveled approximately 620 miles (1,000 kilometers) from northwestern Canada to interior Alaska.
The revelation sheds light on the relationship between prehistoric giants and some of the first humans to cross the Bering Land Bridge, and that humans set up seasonal hunting camps where woolly mammoths were known to gather. It suggests.
Researchers in the United States and Canada have established a link between the two species, thanks to new tools for isotope analysis, ancient tusks and a map of Alaskan ruins. The tusk belonged to a woolly mammoth later named Elmaijjaye, or Elma for short. This specimen he discovered in 2009. Swan Point Ruins Located in central Alaska.
Lead author Audrey Rowe, a doctoral student at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, said the research began after “state-of-the-art” and high-precision tools arrived at the university. Alaska Stable Isotope Facility Samples are broken down and analyzed for strontium isotopes, chemical signatures that reveal details about an animal’s life.
Lowe’s advisor, Matthew Wooler, used the same method to determine the movements of adult male mammoths in a paper published in August 2021. Uhler is the study’s senior research author and professor and director of the university’s School of Fisheries and Marine Sciences. of isotope facilities.
Strontium is a stable isotope produced when the mineral rubidium, a highly reactive metal, decomposes. It’s a slow process, with a half-life of 4 billion years, Lowe said. When rubidium decomposes, it first turns into radioactive strontium-87, and after many years it turns into the stable strontium-86.
Where the mammoths roamed, rocks broke down into soil, plants grew, animals ate those plants, and their tusks showed the levels of strontium in their diet in each layer of ivory.
A woolly mammoth’s tusk grew at a constant rate each day, and the first day of the animal’s life was recorded on the tip of the tusk. When the tusk specimen is divided lengthwise, the layers are clearly visible.
The results can be traced to mineral and strontium levels in rocks around Alaska to create a map of where Elma roamed.
“The U.S. Geological Survey has done a very good job mapping the rocks in Alaska,” Lowe said.
So Wooler suggested the team overlay the locations of local ruins on top of Elma’s movements.
“And lo and behold, there was a lot of overlap between the area with the highest concentration of ruins in Late Pleistocene Alaska and the area used by our giant erma during its lifetime,” says Lowe. he said.
The new isotopic data combines datasets created from radiocarbon and DNA analysis of two closely related juvenile mammoths also found at Swan Point, creating a more complete picture of life 14,000 years ago. To do.
“She was a young adult in her prime. Her isotopes showed that she was not malnourished and that she died during the same season as the Swan Point seasonal hunting camp where her tusk was found.” ” Uhler said in a statement.
Other researchers agreed. “This study significantly advances our understanding of mammoth behavior and also provides interesting clues about human-mammoth interactions,” Rav Dalen, professor of evolutionary genomics at the Center for Paleogenetics in Stockholm, Sweden, said in an email. Ta. Darren was not involved in the new study.
This revelation may also encourage more scientists to explore new combinations of research tools to advance the understanding of science and history.
“Overall, this paper demonstrates how the combined use of a variety of molecular tools, including isotope, DNA, and radiocarbon analysis, can provide groundbreaking and novel insights into prehistory. I think it’s a great example to set,” Darren said.
The findings were published in the journal Wednesday scientific progress.
This new evidence further advances our understanding of woolly mammoths’ early relationships with humans.
“(Elma) wandered through the highest concentration of archaeological sites in Alaska,” Lowe said in a statement. “Early people likely established hunting camps in areas frequented by mammoths.”
The study also overturns what lead researcher Lowe believed should overturn the images that come to mind when thinking about each species individually.
commissioned by the research team Natural history illustrator Julius Sotny Create digital images of the two species. The final image includes all three woolly mammoths found in the Swan Point area, but instead of depicting humans as aggressive hunters surrounding their prey, Lowe decided the artist would instead feature the family. insisted.
“They were just like us, but we only saw them during their intense hunting seasons,” she says. Hunter-gatherers had to use “complex” techniques to kill mammals in order to survive, “and it really took a lot of skill.”
With images that included women, men, and children observing mammoths, Lowe wanted to demonstrate that “these people spend an enormous amount of time teaching their children everything.”
jenna schnuer I’m a freelance writer, editor, and audio producer based in Anchorage, Alaska, focusing (primarily) on science, art, and travel.