Date:

St. Paul Island mammoths most accurately dated ‘prehistoric’ extinction ever

While the Minoan culture on Crete was just beginning, woolly mammoths were disappearing from St. Paul Island, Alaska, according to an international team of scientists who have dated this extinction to 5,600 years ago.

“It’s amazing that everything turned out so precisely with dating of extinction at 5,600 plus or minus 100 years,” said Russell Graham, professor of geosciences, Penn State.”

- Advertisement -

St. Paul Island lies about 400 miles north of the Aleutian Islands and was part of the Bering Land Bridge before sea level rose when the last glacial period ended. Previous researchers radiocarbon-dated remains of five mammoths to about 6,480 years ago, but there was no way to know if these were the last five animals.

The researchers used a variety of proxies to date the demise of the mammoths on the island. Proxies are things in the environment that can be used to independently document the presence of an organism, even though they are not parts of it. In this study, three different spores from fungi that grow on large animal dung were extracted from lake cores and used to determine when the mammoths were no longer on the island. Proxies in sediments from cores from a lake near the cave were used to determine the time of the demise of the mammoth population.

“We see a reduction in the three species of fungus, all of which are associated with the dung of large animals,” said Graham. “These spores are a marker for the presence of large animals like mammoths.”

Beside the mammoths, the only animals appearing on the island in “prehistoric” times were arctic foxes, shrews and polar bears, and there is no evidence of polar bears before 4,000 years ago. Humans did not arrive on the island until 1787 C.E. The only large mammals present were mammoths.

- Advertisement -

Sediment DNA from the lake cores showed the presence of mammoth DNA until 5,650 years ago, plus or minus 80 years. After that time, there is no mammoth DNA and so no mammoths on the island. The youngest of the newly dated mammoth remains’ dates fall within the mammoth DNA range and the fungal spore dates as well.

Using state-of-the-art methods for radiocarbon dating, the researchers used 14 newly recovered remains from various areas on the island to help document the time of extinction.

“The St. Paul mammoth demise is now one of the best-dated prehistoric extinctions, ” the researchers report today (August 1) in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The researchers also used environmental proxies to investigate habitat changes at the time of extinction. The island, which formed between 14,700 and 13,500 years ago rapidly shrank until 9,000 years ago and continued slowly shrinking until 6,000 years ago and now is only 42 square miles in area. While large animals like mammoths became extinct on the continents about 12,000 years ago due to climate change and habitat restructuring, the process was different on the island.

The shrinking of the island concentrated the mammoths in a smaller area and diminished available water. Pollen from the lake cores indicate that the area around the lake was denuded of vegetation by the mammoths. Like elephants today, when the water became cloudy and turgid, the mammoths probably dug holes nearby to obtain cleaner water. Both of these things increased erosion in the area and helped fill in the lake, decreasing the available water even more.

After the extinction of the mammoths, the cores show that erosion stopped and vegetation returned to the area. In essence, the mammoths contributed to their own demise.

The researchers note that this research “highlights freshwater limitation as an overlooked extinction driver and underscores the vulnerability of small island populations to environmental change, even in the absence of human influence,”

PENN STATE

- Advertisement -
spot_img
Mark Milligan
Mark Milligan
Mark Milligan is multi-award-winning journalist and the Managing Editor at HeritageDaily. His background is in archaeology and computer science, having written over 8,000 articles across several online publications. Mark is a member of the Association of British Science Writers (ABSW), the World Federation of Science Journalists, and in 2023 was the recipient of the British Citizen Award for Education, the BCA Medal of Honour, and the UK Prime Minister's Points of Light Award.
spot_img
spot_img
spot_img

Mobile Application

spot_img

Related Articles

Treasures of the Alanian culture found in Alkhan-Kala necropolis

Archaeologists have discovered an intact burial mound containing the tomb of an Alanian elite during excavations at Alkhan-Kala west of Grozny, Chechnya.

Significant archaeological discoveries near Inverness

Archaeologists have made several major discoveries at the site of the upcoming Old Petty Championship Golf Course at Cabot Highlands, near Inverness, Scotland.

Maya ritual offering found in Yucatán caves

Archaeologists from the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) have recovered a globular ceramic pot in Zumpango Cave, part of the extensive Garra de Jaguar system.

Archaeologists find UAE’s first major Iron Age necropolis

The Department of Culture and Tourism in Abu Dhabi has announced the discovery of the first major Iron Age necropolis in the United Arab Emirates.

Ramses III inscription discovered in Jordan’s Wadi Rum

Jordan’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities has announced the discovery of an inscription bearing the seal of Ramses III in the Wadi Rum Reserve, Jordan.

Prince’s royal tomb discovered in Saqqara 

An archaeological mission led by Dr. Zahi Hawass has discovered the tomb of Prince Waser-If-Re, the son of King Userkaf, founder of Egypt’s Fifth Dynasty.

Artefacts from Genghis Khan era rediscovered

Researchers at the Siberian Federal University (SFU) have rediscovered a collection of artefacts from the era of Genghis Khan while cataloguing undocumented objects in the storerooms of the Kytmanov Yenisei Museum-Reserve.

Face to face with royalty: Skull may belong to King Matthias Corvinus

A skull unearthed in the ruins of Hungary’s former royal coronation site may belong to King Matthias Corvinus.