Using the tusk of a woolly mammoth that lived 17,000 years ago, scientists have found that the animal traveled a great distance in its lifetime. The mammoth, which lived to be about 28 years old, traveled an estimated 70,000 kilometers in its Alaskan habitat. For comparison, the circumference of the Earth is 40,000 km.
It is not clear whether the animal regularly chose a different habitat and traveled long distances, or whether it regularly moved over a short distance.
Woolly mammoths are related to today’s elephants and roamed the area north of the equator during the Ice Age. “The animal came to different places in Alaska. And it’s amazing how big the distance between those areas is,” said study researcher Matthew Wooller of the University of Alaska. BBC.
Tusk as diary
The tusks of mammoths continued to grow in ice cream cone-shaped layers for a lifetime. This makes them comparable to tree rings and provides a detailed chronological record of the animal’s life. “From the time they are born to the day they die, they have a diary and it’s written in their tusks,” said study co-author Pat Druckenmiller, director of the Alaska University Museum.
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