The mastodon fossil was first found on a farm in 1998 by Kent and Janne Buesching, who were exploiting the peat on their property. Archaeologists later excavated the remains of the Buesching mastodon. Its skeleton, which is 9 feet (2.7 meters) high and 25 feet (7.6 meters) long, has been studied since 2006.
A closer look at the mastodon’s skull showed that he was killed when the tip of another male mastodon’s tusk pierced the right side of his skull. He died about 100 miles (160 kilometers) away from his home territory, according to a new study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
“The unique result of this study is that, for the first time, we were able to document the annual terrestrial migration of an individual of an extinct species,” said study author Joshua Miller, a paleoecologist and adjunct professor at geology research. at the University of Cincinnati, in a statement.
Northeast Indiana served as a summer mating ground for mastodons, and the study found that this lone creature migrated annually north of its home during the winter months for the past three years. of his life. The researchers estimated that the ancient animal was about 34 years old when it died.
“Using new modeling techniques and a powerful set of geochemical tools, we were able to show that large male mastodons like Buesching migrated to mating sites each year,” Miller said.
Daniel Fisher, co-leader of the study, helped dig the mastodon 24 years ago. He is a professor of paleontology at the University of Michigan and director of the Museum of Paleontology at the University of Michigan.
Fisher cut a long, thin section from the center of his right fang 9.5 feet long (3 feet long). Like the study of tree rings, analysis of the mastodon’s tusks revealed how it interacted with its landscape as a teenager and during the last years of its life.
“You have a whole life lying in front of you in this tusk. The growth and development of the animal, as well as its history of land use change and behavior change; all this history is captured and recorded in the ‘structure and composition of the eye,’ Fisher said.
When he was younger, the mastodon stayed close to home with his female-headed herd in central Indiana before separating and venturing on his own, like modern elephants. As a lone rover, the mastodon would travel about 20 miles (32 kilometers) each month.
Analyzing the tusk
Migration was crucial for mastodons to find places where they could breed while living in harsh, cold climates. But it has been difficult for researchers to determine their geographical areas.
The search for oxygen and strontium isotopes in mastodon tusks is revealing part of this view.
Mastodon tusks, like elephant tusks, have new layers of growth that form near the center throughout their life. Information about when they were born can be found stored at the tip of the tusk, while their death is found in the layer at the base of the tusk.
As mastodons ate bushes and trees and drank water, the chemical elements in their meals were also stored in their fangs.
Chemical analysis of tiny samples taken from different tusk layers of the Buesching mastodon correlated with geographic locations as elements changed according to landscape as well as seasonal fluctuations. These data were incorporated into a movement model developed by the researchers to track essentially when, where, and to what extent he traveled.
“Every time you get to the warm season, the Buesching mastodon would go to the same place, bam, bam, bam, repeatedly. The clarity of that signal was unexpected and really exciting,” Miller said.
Researchers then want to study the tusks of other mastodons to see if they can make similar discoveries.