Mammoth tusks that are more than 100,000 years old, Mull added, are “extremely rare,” and one’s research could give scientists new insights into the Lower Paleolithic, an era of Earth’s history that is poorly understood.
Scientists know that about 200,000 years ago the Earth experienced a glacial period and Our ancestors migrated from Africa. But they don’t know exactly how climate change on the planet has affected mammoths and other large animals over the years. Also unclear is how arrival in North America changed the genetic diversity of mammoths.
“We don’t know much about what happened during that time period,” said Dr. Fisher. “We don’t have access to many samples from this time period due in large part to the fact that sediments of this age are difficult to access.”
Mammoths, a relative of modern furry, small -eared elephants, first appeared about five million years ago and became extinct about 4,000 years ago. Mammoths first came from Africa and spread north, evolving into different species along the way, until they colonized most of the northern hemisphere.
The oldest mammoth to enter North America is known as the Krestovka, or steppe mammoth. This mammoth originated in Eurasia 1.5 million years ago and did so by walking through the Bering Strait, which was not covered by water as it is today. Hundreds of thousands of years later, another mammoth species, the woolly mammoth, crossed the Bering Strait and joined its cousins in North America. The two were crossed to produce the Colombian mammoth, but no one knows exactly when. A recent study estimated that the cross Happened at least 420,000 years ago, but more research is needed to confirm this.
If the tusks are as old as scientists think, “it could be very helpful to clarify the timing of these hybridization events,” said Pete Heintzmann, a professor at the Arctic University Museum in Norway who studies the DNA of mammoths and other Ice Age creatures. .
Although exposure to salt water can damage biological tissue, the deep sea could be ideal for preserving DNA.
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