A case of mistaken identity: Mammoth fossils from Alaska turn out to belong to two ancient whales
Phys.org • • science
Key Points:
- Fossils thought to be mammoth remains at the University of Alaska Museum were radiocarbon-dated and initially suggested to be only 1,854 to 2,731 years old, challenging the accepted extinction timeline of mammoths around 13,000 years ago.
- Stable isotope and DNA analyses revealed the fossils were actually from a minke whale and a North Pacific Right whale, not mammoths, leading to recalibrated radiocarbon dates of approximately 1,100 and 1,800 years old.
- The discovery of marine whale fossils about 400 kilometers inland near Fairbanks, Alaska, raised questions about how they arrived there, with theories including river migration, ancient human transport, or a clerical error in fossil