Fifty thousand years ago, North America was home to megafauna like mammoths and saber-toothed tigers. Their extinction, possibly due to human arrival or climate change, remains unsolved. Using ZooMS technology, researchers analyzed old bones from the Smithsonian Museum, emphasizing the importance of preserving archaeological collections for future discoveries. USNM 23792, Mammuthus primigenius, or Woolly Mammoth , Department of Paleobiology, Smithsonian Institution.
50,000 years ago, North America was ruled by megafauna. Lumbering mammoths roamed the tundra, while forests were home to towering mastodons, fierce saber-toothed tigers, and enormous wolves. Bison and extraordinarily tall camels moved in herds across the continent, while giant beavers plied its lakes and ponds. Immense ground sloths weighing over 1,000 kg were found across many regions east of the Rocky Mountains.
The preparation of a sample plate for ZooMS analysis. The tiny droplets being deposited using the pipette contain small amounts of ground up collagen that will be analyzed on a mass spectrometer. Credit: Samantha Brown Although some of the material from the sites was identifiable, much of it was highly fragmented and did not retain diagnostic features that could enable zooarchaeological identification to species, genus or even family. Some of the bone fragments looked highly unpromising – they were bleached and weathered, or edge-rounded, suggesting they had been transported by water or sediment prior to burial at the site.
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