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| Lead slingin' Parrot Head  |
Straight out of the Flintstones.  [Note: photos and hyperlinks at linked article.] ================== Researchers recover ancient mammoth tusk during deep-sea expedition November 22, 2021 The ocean’s dark depths hold many secrets. For more than three decades, MBARI has been exploring the deep waters off the coast of central California. During an expedition aboard the R/V Western Flyer in 2019, ROV pilot Randy Prickett and scientist Steven Haddock made a peculiar observation. While exploring a seamount located 300 kilometers (185 miles) offshore of California and 3,070 meters (10,000 feet) deep, the team spotted what looked like an elephant’s tusk. Only able to collect a small piece at the time, MBARI returned in July 2021 to retrieve the complete specimen. Now, Haddock and researchers from the Paleogenomics Lab, UC Santa Cruz Genomics Institute, and the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC), and the Museum of Paleontology at the University of Michigan (U-M) are examining the tusk. The researchers have confirmed that the tusk—about one meter (just over three feet) in length—is from a Columbian mammoth (Mammuthus columbi). The cold, high-pressure environment of the deep sea uniquely preserved the tusk, giving researchers the opportunity to study it in greater detail. Computed tomography (CT) scans will reveal the full three-dimensional internal structure of the tusk and more information about the animal’s history, such as its age. “You start to ‘expect the unexpected’ when exploring the deep sea, but I’m still stunned that we came upon the ancient tusk of a mammoth,” said Haddock. “We are grateful to have a multidisciplinary team analyzing this remarkable specimen, including a geochronologist, oceanographers, and paleogenomicists from UCSC; and paleontologists at the University of Michigan. Our work examining this exciting discovery is just beginning and we look forward to sharing more information in the future.” “This specimen’s deep-sea preservational environment is different from almost anything we have seen elsewhere,” said University of Michigan paleontologist Daniel Fisher, who specializes in the study of mammoths and mastodons. “Other mammoths have been retrieved from the ocean, but generally not from depths of more than a few tens of meters.” Fisher and his U-M Museum of Paleontology colleagues will use their knowledge of the structure and composition of mammoth tusks to analyze CT scans of the specimen. The other members of the U-M team are Adam N. Rountrey, Michael D. Cherney, Ethan A. Shirley, and Scott G. Beld. A team of researchers from UCSC’s Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences will investigate when and how the tusk may have arrived deep offshore. The team believes it could be the oldest well-preserved mammoth tusk recovered from this region of North America. Dating of the tusk is being done by the UCSC Geochronology Lab led by Terrence Blackburn, associate professor of Earth and planetary sciences. Blackburn analyzed radioisotopes to show that the tusk is much more than 100,000 years old. “Our age estimate on the tusk is largely based on the natural radioactive decay of certain uranium and thorium isotopes imparted to the tusk from the ocean. If the tusk had been found on land, deciphering its history would not be as straightforward,” said Blackburn. Christopher Edwards and Patrick Drake will examine the oceanographic currents to better pinpoint where the tusk originally came from. Researchers at the UCSC Paleogenomics Lab led by Beth Shapiro, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, plan to sequence the ancient DNA from the specimen, which could provide valuable insight about how mammoths colonized North America. Katherine Moon, a postdoctoral researcher in Shapiro’s lab, accompanied Haddock on the July cruise to retrieve the complete specimen. Shapiro and Moon will recover ancient DNA preserved within the matrix of the tusk, which they will compare to DNA that has already been recovered from other mammoths. “Specimens like this present a rare opportunity to paint a picture both of an animal that used to be alive and of the environment in which it lived,” said Shapiro. “Mammoth remains from continental North America are particularly rare, and so we expect that DNA from this tusk will go far to refine what we know about mammoths in this part of the world.” Other collaborators include David Clague, Lynne Christianson, and Shannon Johnson from MBARI, Ashley Spicer and Kelly Carrothers from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, and Kira Mizell from the United States Geological Survey (USGS). The ocean represents 99 percent of the space where life can exist on this planet and yet we still know very little about it. As interest in exploiting the deep sea by mining for valuable metals has grown—with the potential to place many marine animals in harm’s way—this surprising discovery, hidden on the seafloor for eons, serves as a fragile reminder of the many remaining mysteries worthy of our protection. =============== @ 1 minute news story https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=...KqQ&feature=emb_logo | ||
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| half-genius, half-wit |
Fascinating stuff, no doubt about it. My only question is - how did it get there? | |||
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| Member |
And where is the rest of the carcass? | |||
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| If you see me running try to keep up  |
It was under water for 200,000 years (per the video) so obviously it disintegrated. I like how they throw out these numbers of years, like they really know. | |||
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| Staring back from the abyss  |
Man-made global warming...obviously. ________________________________________________________ "Great danger lies in the notion that we can reason with evil." Doug Patton. | |||
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| Member |
Not sure where the rest of the carcass is but there have been findings of marine fossils on Mount Everest. | |||
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| Member |
The mammoth probably died on land and was washed out to sea during a flood run off event. The carcass became bloated and filled with decomposing gasses allowing it to float further out to sea on the sea's currents. Once the decomposing gases escaped the carcass the mammoth's body sank to the sea bed where the crabs and other sea critters enjoyed their new found feast. Neat discovery. Front sight...Front sight...Front sight...Only Hits Count. NRA Life Member Frank John Boy -Police Lingo | |||
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| Freethinker |
Science, and hardly something they just “throw out there”: “Blackburn analyzed radioisotopes to show that the tusk is much more than 100,000 years old. ‘Our age estimate on the tusk is largely based on the natural radioactive decay of certain uranium and thorium isotopes imparted to the tusk from the ocean. …’” And how many times have we seen examples of news readers’ not even being able to get the most basic facts straight? She said 200,000, but the actual article says 100,000. Do we hold the scientists responsible for people who evidently can’t even read a short written account correctly? Yeah, we do, don’t we? All the time.  “I don’t want some ‘gun nut’ training my officers [about firearms].” — Unidentified chief of an American police department. “I can’t give you brains, but I can give you a diploma.” — The Wizard of Oz This life is a drill. It is only a drill. If it had been a real life, you would have been given instructions about where to go and what to do. | |||
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| If you see me running try to keep up |
My statement was made due to the fact that I don’t believe their dating methods. https://www.icr.org/article/my...g-radiocarbon-dating | |||
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| Freethinker |
That was obvious. But like many of my posts here, my intent was not to convince the person I responded to. And for those whom I might influence, I’ll point out another obvious fact that the article you linked has absolutely nothing to do with the dating methods mentioned in the article that involve the radioactive decay of uranium and thorium. https://www.icr.org/article/my...g-radiocarbon-dating “I don’t want some ‘gun nut’ training my officers [about firearms].” — Unidentified chief of an American police department. “I can’t give you brains, but I can give you a diploma.” — The Wizard of Oz This life is a drill. It is only a drill. If it had been a real life, you would have been given instructions about where to go and what to do. | |||
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| Member |
Should make for an interesting edition of Sharkweek this year! | |||
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| Master of one hand pistol shooting  |
Fell off the boat. SIGnature NRA Benefactor CMP Pistol Distinguished | |||
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goodheart |
Mammoth tusks are still found pretty readily in Siberia, according to this article. A few years ago I frequented a scrimshaw shop in Lahaina, Maui. One could buy some very nice scrimshaw items made of mammoth tusks--not outlawed as elephant ivory is; but the article says people complain anyway because they think popularity of mammoth ivory may make poachers take more elephant ivory. _________________________ “Remember, remember the fifth of November!" | |||
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| Help! Help! I'm being repressed!  |
The front fell off. | |||
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Web Clavin Extraordinaire |
You don't believe in chemistry?? Cool. I mean, if you believe that nuclear power works but don't believe in radioactive decay, I don't know what to tell you. At any rate, they didn't say "it is 100,000 years old", they said "much older". All radioisotope dates (or thermoluminescence dates) contain a margin of error as a basic premise of the methodology. Not all methods of radioisotope dating are useful in all contexts. The only absolute dating method that can provide a precise date (to a year) is dendrochronology, which is often quite limited in applicability for a variety of reasons. With regard to the linked website about "myths" surrounding methods of dating "old things" (my term), I dare say one myth that wasn't addressed is the fact that not a single scientist who works with these methods of dating "old things" would say those methods return a specific date, let alone a calendar date (e.g. "oh, yeah, that mammoth died on a Tuesday in September 192,947 years ago."). ---------------------------- Chuck Norris put the laughter in "manslaughter" Educating the youth of America, one declension at a time. | |||
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| Get my pies outta the oven!  |
Or it died on dry land that later became covered by the sea that moved in. | |||
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| Member |
I have a few mammoth tusks we got while jet boating on rivers with big eroding banks. The tusks were just sort of Falling out of the mud. I’ve been lucky to find a mammoth tooth as well. | |||
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