Lifetime mobility of an Arctic woolly mammoth

Matthew J. Wooller, Clement Bataille, Patrick Druckenmiller, Gregory M. Erickson, Pamela Groves, Norma Haubenstock, Timothy Howe, Johanna Irrgeher, Daniel Mann, Katherine Moon, Ben A. Potter, Thomas Prohaska, Jeffrey Rasic, Joshua Reuther, Beth Shapiro, Karen J. Spaleta, Amy D. Willis

Publikation: Beitrag in FachzeitschriftArtikelForschungBegutachtung

2 Zitate (Scopus)

Abstract

Little is known about woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) mobility and range. Here we use high temporal resolution sequential analyses of strontium isotope ratios along an entire 1.7-meter-long tusk to reconstruct the movements of an Arctic woolly mammoth that lived 17,100 years ago, during the last ice age. We use an isotope-guided random walk approach to compare the tusk's strontium and oxygen isotope profiles to isotopic maps. Our modeling reveals patterns of movement across a geographically extensive range during the animal's ~28-year life span that varied with life stages. Maintenance of this level of mobility by megafaunal species such as mammoth would have been increasingly difficult as the ice age ended and the environment changed at high latitudes.
OriginalspracheEnglisch
Seiten (von - bis)806-808
Seitenumfang3
FachzeitschriftScience
Jahrgang373.2021
Ausgabenummer6556
DOIs
PublikationsstatusVeröffentlicht - 13 Aug. 2021

Bibliographische Notiz

Funding Information:
This study was supported by the University of Alaska's Faculty Initiative Fund, the M. J. Murdock Charitable Trust, and the National Science Foundation [MCT SR-10 201811010, NSF DBI MRI 1625573 (M.J.W.); NSF BMMB EAGER 1937050 (G.M.E.)] and by the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council [Discovery Grant RGPIN-2019-05709 (C.B.)].

Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2021 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works

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