Buzz
Mammoths, ancient relatives of elephants, disappeared long ago. To unlock the secrets of these fascinating creatures, scientists turned to their tusks. Mammoth ivory contains growth rings and chemical markers, which provide a timeline of an animal’s life, from its early days to its final moments.
Tusks also hold some remarkable surprises. From an unexplainable skull to a challenge that caused mammoths to wean earlier than usual, here are 10 astonishing revelations about these iconic creatures of the Ice Age.
10. The Well-Traveled Matriarch
Woolly mammoths disappeared between 10,000 and 4,000 years ago. With their extinction, much about their behavior remains a mystery. However, in 2024, a case study of one particular mammoth provided new insights, shedding light on some of the unknowns about their lives.
Her name was Elma. The fossil of this mammoth was unearthed in 2009 at Swan Point, an excavation site in east-central Alaska. To reconstruct her life story, researchers carefully sliced through her tusk, examining the growth rings and chemical markers embedded in the ivory.
The tusk unveiled that Elma was born over 14,000 years ago in what is now the Yukon, located in present-day northwest Canada. She spent a decade in this region before embarking on an extraordinary journey. Driven by some unknown reason, Elma migrated to what would later be known as Alaska, traveling an impressive 620 miles (997 km) in just three years—quite a feat for a woolly mammoth.
She passed away at a young age, just 20 years old. Given that she was in peak health and well-nourished at the time, and her body was found near seasonal hunting camps, it's likely that Elma fell victim to human hunters. The reasons behind her extensive travels remain uncertain, but one possibility is that the Yukon faced food or water shortages, prompting Elma to search for better resources elsewhere. Or perhaps she was simply a wanderer at heart.
9. Male Woolly Mammoths Experienced Musth
In modern elephants, males go through a condition called musth, which occurs annually and lasts for several months. During this period, testosterone levels surge to extreme levels. Bull elephants during musth focus solely on two things—fighting rival males and attracting females. For a long time, scientists speculated whether woolly mammoths experienced a similar phenomenon.
In 2023, the first concrete evidence of mammoth musth was uncovered. This discovery came to light when a study compared the tusks of a contemporary adult male African elephant with a bull mammoth that roamed the Earth around 37,000 years ago.
Researchers analyzed the testosterone levels in the tusks’ growth rings. They observed that during musth, the modern elephant experienced dramatic hormone surges. The tusk from the mammoth exhibited the same substantial seasonal increase, offering definitive proof that mammoths too went through musth and the associated behaviors.
8. The Oldest Jewelry in Eurasia
In 2010, a debated artifact surfaced from Stajnia Cave in Poland. The mammoth ivory piece, measuring about 1.8 inches (4.5 cm) long, had two holes, indicating that it was likely a pendant for a necklace. Unfortunately, it was broken, and it seems the owner discarded it around 41,500 years ago in the cave.
A 2021 study used radiocarbon dating and 3-D modeling to determine the age of the ivory, revealing intricate details of the material. However, this is where the controversy arises. Not all scholars in the scientific community accept the claim that the pendant is 41,500 years old.
Nevertheless, the researchers behind the 2021 study are confident that with time, peer review will likely validate their conclusions. If confirmed, this would be a groundbreaking discovery. This fragment of mammoth tusk could represent the oldest decorated jewelry crafted by Homo sapiens in Eurasia.
7. The Tale of Kik
Uncovering the full life stories of specific Ice Age animals is an exceptionally rare feat. While Elma provided a solid “biography,” another mammoth left behind a far more intricate account of his existence. Meet Kik, a male Arctic woolly mammoth.
Kik was born 17,100 years ago in interior Alaska, and for the first two years, he and his herd roamed the lower Yukon River basin. Over the next 14 years, Kik’s range expanded as he made long journeys between the Brooks Range, the Alaska Range, and the Seward Peninsula. After reaching age 16, Kik’s range further broadened as he likely left his herd to travel alone or with a group of other males, wandering between the North Slope of the Brooks Range and interior Alaska in search of seasonal grazing grounds.
Remarkably, Kik covered enough distance during his lifetime to circle the Earth twice. However, in his final 18 months, he remained in the North Slope and ceased traveling long distances. Kik’s tusk revealed that he was starving during his last summer. It remains unclear whether Kik was ill or injured, but at the age of 28—relatively young for his species—he collapsed and died in the Kikiakrorak River Valley.
6. The Smuggling of Mammoth Ivory
The heartbreaking tale of the illegal ivory trade is well-known. Poachers are decimating elephant populations to steal their tusks. Various methods exist to fight this issue, one of which involves tracing the ivory's journey from poacher to purchaser. In 2019, a group of researchers turned their attention to the illegal ivory trade in Cambodia.
Focusing on Cambodia as the 'consumer,' the researchers examined ivory carvings and tusks found in the country to determine their origin. Unsurprisingly, much of it came from Africa. However, they made a surprising discovery—some of the ivory had origins from the Ice Age. It turns out that a significant amount of woolly mammoth ivory is being trafficked in Cambodia, indicating that the trade in mammoth tusks is much more widespread and pervasive than initially thought.
Some believe that mammoth tusks are more ethically sourced (after all, the animals have been extinct for ages). However, there is no easy method to differentiate between elephant and mammoth ivory, allowing smugglers to pass off illegally harvested elephant tusks as legal 10,000-year-old fossils.
5. How Pygmy Mammoths Endured Climate Change
Southern California’s Channel Islands were once inhabited by a distinct species of mammoth—the pygmy mammoth. These small, pony-sized creatures disappeared from the islands around 12,000 years ago. Initially, many researchers attributed their extinction to climate change, arguing that the mammoths could not adapt to a warmer environment.
The discovery of a tusk on Santa Rosa Island altered this story. The tusk belonged to a pygmy mammoth that lived 80,000 years ago. To grasp why this finding challenged the idea of climate change being the primary cause of their extinction, we must examine the timeline of the mammoths’ arrival on the islands.
Scientists now believe that the first mammoths made the swim from the mainland to the islands during a period when sea levels were lower, which occurred around 150,000 years ago. Over the following millennia, the area experienced a dramatic climate shift, with temperatures even hotter than today's conditions. Yet, since pygmy mammoths were still thriving on the islands 80,000 years ago, it’s clear they had successfully adapted to the warmer climate and continued to live there for thousands of years after.
4. The World’s Oldest Ivory Workshop
Mammoth ivory, not elephant tusks, was the material used in the world’s first ivory workshop. This discovery was made in 2012 when archaeologists uncovered an ancient mammoth hunting site known as Breitenbach in Saxony-Anhalt. The site, which once spanned at least 64,583 square feet (6,000 square meters), yielded numerous ancient artifacts, including the 35,000-year-old workshop.
The workshop featured two separate workspaces. One area seemed to be designated for slicing ivory into thin layers, or lamella. The other space served as a carving room, where the discarded remnants of ivory work were found. These 'leftovers' included beads, a decorated rod, incomplete items, and broken pieces of artwork.
It’s almost certain that the workshop, along with the vast settlement, was created by early modern humans. While it’s unclear exactly where they obtained the ivory, it’s likely they gathered it from animals that either died naturally or were hunted by humans.
3. The Enigmatic California Park Skull
In 2016, a skull was discovered in a California park on Santa Rosa Island, which was once home to two mammoth species—the massive Columbian mammoth and the smaller pygmy mammoth.
This 13,000-year-old fossil was exceptionally well-preserved, but it raised more questions than it answered. Although clearly from a mammoth, the skull was too small to be from a Columbian mammoth and too large to belong to a pygmy mammoth.
The skull wasn't from a young Columbian mammoth, as its tusks were a peculiar blend of adult and sub-adult characteristics. Oddly, the right tusk exhibited the signature spiral seen in mature mammoths, while the left tusk was shorter and sloped, resembling that of a juvenile.
This might even represent a newly discovered species. After the Columbian mammoth swam to the island, the population underwent swift dwarfism to adapt to the confined space, resulting in the pygmy mammoth. The skull could belong to a transitional species, marking the halfway point as the Columbian mammoth shrank from 13.7 feet (4.2 m) to its 5.9 feet (1.8 m) pygmy size.
2. Paleolithic Magic Refuted
In 2015, a mammoth ivory artifact was discovered in the Hohle Fels Cave in Germany. Measuring about 8 inches (20.4 cm) long, it had four pencil-sized holes. The stick's purpose was unclear. As is common with puzzling objects, archaeologists classified it as a ritual item, likely a 'magic wand' used for occult practices.
A research team from Germany and Belgium proposed a more practical interpretation. They suggested that the baton was not for casting spells, but rather used to weave rope. In the Paleolithic, rope was a highly prized resource, making it plausible that people would have created tools for rope-making.
To verify their hypothesis, the team constructed a replica of the artifact. Unfortunately, this replica couldn't be used as the original had broken into 13 pieces at some point in history. The size of the holes in the artifact indicated that it was capable of creating thick ropes made of two to four strands. After testing several materials, individual strands were threaded through the holes and woven together. Cattail proved to be the best material, and within just 10 minutes, the researchers successfully produced 16 feet (5 meters) of durable rope.
1. Hunting Prompted Faster Weaning in Mammoths
The cause of mammoth extinction is still widely debated, with the primary suspects being climate change and human hunting, or perhaps a combination of both. However, a 2015 study strongly suggests that humans were the main contributors to their extinction.
It is known that when modern elephants face climate-induced nutritional stress, their mothers extend the time their young are allowed to nurse. In contrast, when herds face prolonged hunting pressure, the calves tend to mature and wean earlier. These accelerated or delayed developmental patterns leave identifiable chemical signatures in the tusks of the animals. The 2015 study sought to identify these signatures in Ice Age ivory to determine whether environmental or human factors caused more stress on mammoth populations.
Researchers examined 15 tusks from juvenile Siberian woolly mammoths, which lived between the ages of 3 and 12. Notably, these mammoths were maturing faster than usual, with their weaning age dropping from 8 to 5 years as they neared extinction. This indicated that mammoths had been experiencing significant hunting pressure for at least 30,000 years, as the calves in the study lived between 40,000 and 10,000 years ago.
