Studying prehistoric tusks

In a new study, researchers pieced together the story of a 14,000-year-old Alaskan woolly mammoth nicknamed Elma by examining her tusk. Woolly mammoths were massive planteating mammals that lived from about 300,000 to 11,000 years ago before vanishing. Scientists studied thin layers of minerals that built up each day on Elma’s tusk. The layers contained chemical clues to where she lived and what she ate. The team found that Elma was born in the Yukon and lived for about 20 years. Their methods could answer important questions about how woolly mammoths and mastodons (prehistoric relatives of modern-day elephants) endured for hundreds of thousands of years—and why they became extinct.…

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The Week Junior US (Digital) - 1 Issue, Issue 200

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