A closer look at the mammoth skull showed that he was killed when the tip of another male mammoth tusk pierced the right side of his skull. He died about 100 miles (160 kilometers) from home, according to a new study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “The unique result of this study is that for the first time we have been able to document the annual terrestrial migration of an extinct species,” said Joshua Miller, author of the first study and an associate professor of paleontology and geology. at the University of Cincinnati, in a statement. Northeast Indiana served as a summer mating site for mastodens, and the study found that this solitary creature migrated each year north of its home during the winter months for the last three years of its life. The ancient animal was around 34 when it died, the researchers estimated. “Using new modeling techniques and a powerful geochemical toolbox, we were able to show that large male mastodens such as Buesching migrated each year to mating sites,” Miller said. Daniel Fisher, co-leader of the study, helped excavate the mastodont 24 years ago. He is a professor of paleontology at the University of Michigan and director of the University of Michigan Paleontology Museum. Fisher cut a long, thin section from the center of his right 9.5-foot-long (3-meter-long) tusk. Like the study of tree rings, the analysis of the mastoid tusk revealed how he interacted with his landscape as a teenager as well as during the last years of his life. “You have a whole life ahead of you on this tusk. The growth and development of the animal, as well as its history of land use change and behavior change – this whole story is captured and recorded in the structure and composition of the tusk.” said Fisher. When he was younger, the mastodon got stuck near his house with his herd in central Indiana before splitting up and going out on his own – like modern elephants. As a lone rover, the mastodon would walk for about 20 miles (32 kilometers) each month.
Analyzing the tusk
Migration was critical for mastodonts to find places where they could reproduce while living in harsh, cold climates. But it was difficult for researchers to locate their geographical areas. The search for oxygen and strontium isotopes in mastodon’s tusks reveals some of this knowledge. Mastodon tusks, like elephant tusks, have new growth layers that form near the center throughout their life. Information about when they were born can be found stored on the tip of the tusk, while their death is in the mattress at the base of the tusk. As mastodons drilled bushes and trees and drank water, chemicals from their meals were also stored in tusks. Chemical analysis of microscopic specimens taken from different layers of Buesching mammalian tusks correlated with geographical locations as the data changed depending on the landscape as well as seasonal variations. This data was placed in a motion model developed by the researchers to actually track when, where and how far he traveled. “Every time we got to the hot season, the Buesching mastodon went to the same place – bam, bam, bam – over and over again. The clarity of that signal was unexpected and really exciting,” Miller said. Researchers then want to study the tusks of other mastodontists to see if they can make similar discoveries.
