Rediscovered Fossil Redraws the Map of Woolly Mammoth Territory

• A prehistoric tooth
• Peek-a-mammoth

Sometimes the greatest discoveries are actually rediscoveries. In Canada, for example, researchers revealed North America’s most northeasterly woolly mammoth find after taking a second look at a mammoth tooth first discovered in 1878.

In a study published last month in the journal Canadian Science Publishing, researchers analyzed a worn mammoth tooth found almost 150 years ago on an island in Nunavut—a northern Canadian territory. The results have led the team to reclassify the tooth, formerly believed to have belonged to a Columbian mammoth, as the remains of an older cold-adapted woolly mammoth. The research sheds light on this individual in its final days and reveals woolly mammoths reached significantly farther east than previously thought.

A prehistoric tooth

“On the basis of morphology, we cautiously identify the tooth as the worn stump of the third left upper molar of a woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius),” the researchers wrote in the study.

They re-examined the tooth’s morphology, dated the fossil, and conducted isotope analyses. Simply put, isotopes are different versions of the same element, and experts use stable isotope analysis to investigate ancient diets, among other things. Louis-Philippe Bateman, lead author of the study and a graduate student in McGill University’s Department of Biology, compares isotopic analysis to “high-stakes dentistry on precious fossil remains.”

The isotopic tests revealed that the mammoth consumed standard Ice Age vegetation, grasses, and other plants, even though it likely lived during an interglacial period (a time between ice ages free of large ice sheets) between 130,000 and 100,000 years ago, when the area had similar temperatures to today’s. The tests also showed higher nitrogen levels than expected, suggesting that the animal may have suffered from malnutrition at the end of its life.

Peek-a-mammoth

“Now that we know woolly mammoths likely ranged here, it’s very tempting to go out and look for some more. They can turn up in the most unexpected of places!” Louis-Philippe Bateman added. On a broader scale, the paper underscores museum collections’ long-lasting value. “A specimen kept for almost 150 years still has secrets to reveal,” Bateman added. “Studying them can give us insights into how organisms evolve and respond to climate change.”

In other words, museum collections have the potential to be a gift that keeps on giving. On a different note, I don’t know why anyone would be surprised at the idea of a woolly mammoth roaming farther than expected. After all, Manfred (aka Manny, everyone’s favorite mammoth in the animated movie Ice Age) certainly went out of his way to return a human child to its family. Maybe the owner of this tooth was on a similar mission.