Woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) The peoples of mainland Alaska overlapped with the first peoples of this region for at least 1,000 years. However, it is unclear how mammoths used the space they shared with humans. In a new study, scientists from the University of Alaska Fairbanks and elsewhere analyzed a 14,000-year-old female mammoth tusk discovered at an archaeological site in Fairbanks. swan point They showed that she migrated nearly 1,000 km (621 miles) from northwestern Canada to inhabit the Shaw Creek watershed in interior Alaska, an area with the highest concentration of early remains in interior Alaska. Early Alaskans appear to have built their settlements based in part on the prevalence of mammoths, utilizing them for raw materials and perhaps food.

The woolly mammoth at the center of the study, named Elmayujaye by the Healy Lake Village Council, was discovered at Swan Point, Alaska's oldest archaeological site, which also contained the remains of a juvenile mammoth and a baby.

Mammoth fossils have also been found at three other sites within 10 km of Swan Point.

In the study, University of Alaska Fairbanks researcher Audrey Rowe and her colleagues conducted detailed isotopic analysis of complete tusks and genetic analysis of the remains of many other mammoth individuals, comparing the subject's movements and similar Pieced together relationships with other mammoths in location and environment. Neighborhood.

They determined that the Swan Point area was likely the gathering place for at least two closely related but distinct maternal herds.

“This is a fascinating story about the complexity of mammoth life and behavior, about which we have little insight,” said Dr. Hendrik Poynar, director of the McMaster Center for Ancient DNA at McMaster University.

The authors sequenced the mitochondrial genomes of eight woolly mammoths found at Swan Point and other nearby sites to see if and how they were related.

They also conducted isotopic analysis of a 14,000-year-old tusk from Elmayujaye (Elma) taken from Swan Point.

“Mammoth tusks grew like tree trunks, with thin layers showing steady growth, and isotopes of different elements such as oxygen and strontium providing information about the target's movements,” the researchers said. Ta.

“The female mammoth lived most of her life in a relatively small area of ​​the Yukon Territory and died when she was about 20 years old.”

“As she grew older, she traveled more than 1,000 kilometers in just three years, settling in interior Alaska and dying near related babies and boys, suggesting that she may have been the matrilineal leader. unknown.”

“Mammoths are estimated to behave much like modern elephants, with females and young living in close-knit matrilineal herds, and adult males traveling alone or in looser groups of males. They are often thought to have a wider range than females.

The researchers extracted and analyzed ancient DNA from Elmayujay's tusks and found that the mammoth was closely related to other mammoths at the same site, and more distantly related to other mammoths at a nearby site called Holzmann. found.

“Early humans had a deep understanding of mammoths and the art of hunting them, and used mammoth habitats for scavenging and hunting detritus as raw material for tools,” the researchers said.

“In addition to the direct effects of hunting on mammoth populations, human activities and settlements have also affected mammoth populations indirectly by restricting mammoth movement and access to preferred grazing areas. There is a possibility.”

“For early people in Alaska, these areas were important for observation and viewing, as well as potential food sources,” Dr. Poyner said.

The data collected suggests that people organized seasonal hunting camps based on where mammoths congregated, and that this may have had an indirect effect on the localized extinction of mammoths in Alaska, which was further exacerbated by a rapidly changing climate and changes in vegetation. This suggests that it may have played a role.

However, such deprivation does not seem to have affected the mammoths involved.

“She was a young adult in her prime,” said Professor Matthew Wooler, director of the Alaska Stable Isotope Facility and a researcher at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

“Her isotopes showed that she was not malnourished and that she died during the same season as the Swan Point seasonal hunting camp where her tusk was found.”

“This is more than just looking at stone tools and ruins and making assumptions. This analysis of lifetime migration is very helpful in understanding how humans and mammoths lived in these areas,” McMaster said. said Dr. Tyler Murchy, a postdoctoral fellow at the university.

a paper The findings were published in this week's magazine scientific progress.

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Audrey G. Lowe other. 2024. The female woolly mammoth's lifelong migration ends in an ancient Alaskan hunter-gatherer camp. scientific progress 10(3); doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adk0818