Kik the mammoth: trajectory of a pachyderm
Mathew Wooller and Pat Druckenmiller, authors of the new mammoth tusk study at the University of Alaska Museum of the North.
© Ancheta / University of Alaska Fairbanks
Text by: Alice Rouja
5 mins
The story and trajectory of Kik, a mammoth that died 17,000 years ago, is on the front page of the eminent scientific journal
Sciences
.
A team of researchers has succeeded in retracing the peregrinations of this pachyderm thanks to the autopsy of its tusks.
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In 28 years of life, the immense mammal would have traveled 70,000 kilometers, the equivalent of twice around the Earth. To arrive at this conclusion, a first in the scientific world, a team of researchers analyzed the DNA as well as the sediments present in the tusks of this animal, which died in Alaska 17,000 years ago and was found some this ten years near the Kikiakrorak River in the far northwest of the region.
After taking more than 340,000 samples, the researchers looked at the isotopes (particularly strontium and oxygen) present in mineral parts such as teeth or tusks. This is where the ecological environment leaves its mark, in the same way that the geology of soils and sediment layers can inform about the climatic environment at a given time. In fact, isotopes are chemicals found in plants and ultimately in the stomachs of animals that ingest them. They end up being stored in the tusks.
Using this technique, scientists were able to compare the presence of isotopes in Kik's tusk with those found in teeth of non-migrating rodents from different regions of Alaska. They were able to deduce the movements of the animal throughout its life. Clément Bataille, main co-author of the study, and professor at the University of Ottawa, explains to our colleagues at
France Info
: “
This is the first time that we know anything about their mobility.
To retrace the journey that this mammoth took, we used its tusks, which are a tissue that grows continuously, and therefore it records chemical signatures that are in the landscape, either in the water, or in the rocks. .
And so, that can then allow us, with maps, to trace where the mammoth is moving.
"
An international study takes unprecedented peek into life of 17,000-year-old mammoth.
@cbataill of @uOttawaScience co-leads study with @uafairbanks and leads modeling effort retracing lifetime of prehistoric animal.
🦣 https://t.co/U3Hyz3dE5E pic.twitter.com/FFtVzziDpj
- uOttawa (@uOttawa) August 12, 2021
How did Kik die ?, ask the researchers
And what a surprise! Despite his immense size (over three meters high) and volume (around six tons), Kik made incredible movements, especially once he reached his adulthood, around 15 years old. For the newspaper
Le Monde
, the same professor explains: “
It can travel 700
kilometers at once, which is surprising for such a huge animal.
»Why such long journeys? The researchers asked themselves the question without being sure of the answer. Two hypotheses prevail. Either Kik needed to travel far for food or, like male elephants, he wandered from herd to herd. Data collected with Kik could indicate similar behavior in elephants and mammoths.
These scientists were able to trace Kik's wanderings, from his childhood to his untimely death. A mammoth could live up to 60 years, but it died at 28. He ventured into the far northwest of Alaska one summer and likely never left, since that is where his bones were found. Certainly trapped by a terribly cold winter, the animal died of not being able to feed and survive in extreme weather conditions. An interesting hypothesis according to researchers, for whom climate change and human activity would have played a role in the disappearance of mammoths. With the general warming of temperatures, landscapes have changed from large steppes to dense forests. This may have narrowed the area of habitat for these mammals.
In the columns of the
Courrier international
, the researchers conclude: “
For megafauna species, like the mammoth, maintaining such a degree of mobility has arguably proved increasingly difficult as the end of the Ice Age. was approaching and the environment was changing in high latitudes.
"
Chemical analysis of an ice age woolly mammoth's tusk reveals the huge distances it traveled during its lifetime more than 17,000 years ago.
https://t.co/b830xVhto3
- nature (@Nature) August 12, 2021
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