A young female mammoth was wandering near the Central Coast of California when her life ended tragically. Her body was found in the Pacific Ocean. Her remains were carried by currents and settled 3,000 feet beneath the water's surface on the side of a seamount. She sat for millenniums, her existence unknown to anyone.
Scientists from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute stumbled upon one of her tusks while using remotely operated vehicles to search for new deep-sea species off the coast of Monterey, Calif.
Randy Prickett, a senior R.O.V. pilot at the institute, said that he looked down and saw a tusk. Mr. Prickett was able to convince his colleagues to go in for a closer look. If we don't grab this right now, you'll regret it.
The crew tried to get the object. The scimitar-shaped specimen's tip broke off. They took the small piece and left the rest behind.
The scientists examined the fragment and were certain that it was a tusk. What animal and time period was not known.
The specimen was found in the deep sea. The remains of prehistoric creatures are usually found deep underground or encased in the frozen soil of the north. The remains of a mammoth, or any ancient mammal for that matter, have never been found in waters so deep in the North Sea.
Steven H.D. Haddock, a marine biologist at the institute who led the survey, usually focuses on bioluminescence and the ecology of deep-sea organisms. He couldn't resist the attraction of this stumper. The scientists from the institute, the University of California, Santa Cruz and the University of Michigan were put together to solve the mystery.
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Steven Haddock gestured at the internal structure of the tusk on a screen.
Preliminary research by Dr. Haddock and his colleagues suggested that this might have been a mammoth that died during the Lower Paleolithic, an era that lasted over two million years.
The evolution of mammoths in North America may be answered by further study of this specimen. The discovery suggests that the ocean floor could contain paleontological treasures that will add to our knowledge of the deep past. The team had to head back out to sea to collect the rest of the tusk.
I boarded the Western Flyer on July 27 with other crew. Along for the ride were Daniel Fisher, a paleontologist at the University of Michigan who studies mammoths and mastodons, and a researcher at the University of California, Santa Cruz who studies the DNA of ancient animals.
The tusk came from a female mammoth, and Dr. Moon was able to extract just enough DNA from the broken tip. The conclusion was supported by Dr. Fisher, who said the tusk was characteristic of a young female mammoth. The researcher at Santa Cruz who was unable to join the trip was able to provide an estimate of how long the mammoth had been dead.
It took two days to reach the mountain where the tusk was as Dr. Haddock and his colleagues stopped at various points along the way to collect rare and undescribed species of jellyfish and ctenophores. The sun was barely setting on the morning of July 29 when the boat finally reached its target. The rest of the crew was still eating breakfast when Dr. Haddock and his team went to the control room to begin their search.
An air of excitement filled the dark room as the scientists watched on screens while the R.O.V., named after the famous marine biologist who influenced John Steinbeck, slowly descended into the depths. The room was packed with scientists, engineers and members of the ship's crew eager to see the rediscovery of the tusk after the aquatic drone had reached its destination.
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The remotely operated vehicle was suspended over the pool on the Western Flyer.
The seamount was covered in a black iron-manganese crust. It was difficult to spot the tusk at first. The quarry appeared on one of the screens after less than 15 minutes of searching.
Dr. Haddock said it was exactly how they left it.
The crew couldn't celebrate yet. There was no guarantee that the tusk would go smoothly. Dr. Haddock and his team took their time recording photos and videos to create a 3-D model of the tooth if it broke during their attempt to repair it.
The sponges and plastic fingers were attached to the arms of the vehicle to make it easier for the pilots to pick up the tusk. The room was silent as the grippers reached for the fossil. The robot lifted the tusk and everyone in the room nervously looked on. The object was gently moved into the collection drawer. The silence was broken by a torrent of applause after the tusk was released. The tusk was found and recovered in less than two hours.
The R.O.V. returned to the surface and was brought back to the ship. The tusk was moved to the ship's lab and wasted no time in measuring, cleaning and photographing it.
Dr. Moon joined in after wearing a pair of gloves and some sterile coveralls. She used a wire saw to cut a chunk of the tusk off. She hoped the sample contained more mammoth DNA than was recovered from the tusk's tip two years ago, so that she could determine the species of mammoth that ended up in this watery grave.
Dr. Moon said that they were all excited. This is an Indiana Jones movie.
Annie is from Santa Cruz, Calif.
Annie is from Santa Cruz, Calif.
Scientists from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute boarded a research ship to look for an ancient treasure.
I took pictures when they retrieved it.
Annie is from Santa Cruz, Calif.
The treasure was not a sunken ship, but the tusk of a mammoth. Prehistoric animal remains are usually found deep underground or in the permafrost, not on the seafloor. I decorated the cup to honor the trip to find it.
Annie is from Santa Cruz, Calif.
The tusk was spotted by scientists with the Monterey Bay research team. They were only able to get a small piece. The Lower Paleolithic is a poorly understood era of Earth's history.
Annie is from Santa Cruz, Calif.
The ship reached the site where they originally found the tusk and sent a remotely operated vehicle to retrieve the rest. I spotted the operation on the screen while I was in the control room. The researchers and pilots were happy.
Annie is from Santa Cruz, Calif.
The pilots were able to collect the tusk. Many of the ship's crew gathered to watch the researchers unload their haul. The specimen had never been collected from deep water.
Annie is from Santa Cruz, Calif.
The tusk was covered in iron-manganese and smelled like a garage. It was cleaned and examined by Daniel Fisher of the University of Michigan and samples were collected by the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Annie is from Santa Cruz, Calif.
The vehicle was sent back to the deep sea a few more times before the trip was over. I got to hitch a ride on one of those dives. It spent a few hours 2,000 feet below the ocean's surface.
12h ago
Dr. Moon said that analyzing the ancient animal's genes is fairly routine now that he is on the ship. Genetic studies of animals up to one million years old have been made possible by recent advances in the field of ancient DNA.
After Dr. Moon collected her samples, the tusk was handed off to Dr. Fisher for analysis to reveal the mammoth's age when it died, and what conditions were like during its lifetime. The results of the studies were promising as of November.
The iron-manganese crust covered the three feet long tusk. The deep sea has a lot of these metals, and in some places an iron-manganese shell will form around any object that stays in one place long enough. The thickness of the tusk's crust suggested it was old, but to find out how old it was, Dr. Blackburn studied the decay of radioactive materials in samples of the original tusk tip.
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The University of California, Santa Cruz, and the University of Michigan have researchers working in their labs.
He estimated that the tusk had been on the ocean floor for more than 100,000 years, but these findings are not definitive.
Dick Mol, a paleontologist with the Historyland museum in the Netherlands, was not involved in the recovery or analysis of the tusk.
The Lower Paleolithic, a poorly understood era of Earth's history, could be given new insights by studying a mammoth tusk that is over 100,000 years old.
Our ancestors were moving out of Africa around 200,000 years ago when the Earth was experiencing a glacier. They don't know how the planet's changing climate affected mammoths and other large animals. How the arrival of North America changed the genetics of mammoths is not clear.
Dr. Fisher said they don't know much about what happened during that time period. It is difficult to get access to the samples from this time period due to the fact that they are older.
Around five million years ago, mammoths first appeared and became extinct around 4,000 years ago. The first mammoths came out of Africa and spread north, evolving into distinct species along the way.
The earliest mammoths to enter North America were known as Krestovka. 1.5 million years ago, these mammoths came from the area now known as Eurasia, and they were able to walk across the Bering Strait because it wasn't covered by water. The woolly mammoth, a species of mammoth, crossed the Bering Strait and joined their cousins in North America hundreds of thousands of years later. The two hybridized to produce the mammoth, but no one knows when. A recent study estimated that the event occurred at least 420,000 years ago, but more research is needed to confirm this.
Pete Heintzman, an associate professor at the Arctic University Museum of Norway who studies the genetics of mammoths and other ice age creatures, said that if the tusk is old, it could help clarify the timing of the event.
The deep sea can be a good place to preserve your genes.
Dr. Heintzman said that it was dark, cold and stable. The best-preserved remains come from caves and permafrost, which have low temperatures and no light.
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Leonardo Santamaria was given a credit.
There is a lot that can be learned from studying the tissue of this tusk. Elephants, mammoths and other proboscideans have large tusks. They grow a structure that resembles a stack of ice cream cones. The size and shape of the layers can tell scientists a lot about the life history of the animal with near-daily resolution. The animal's food is reflected by the isotopes that are contained in each layer. Scientists can learn more about the animal's eating habits by tracing the isotopes back to specific locations.
The only preserved remains of an ancient land animal in the ocean are likely to be the mammoth tusks.
Mr. Mol said there are probably a lot more mammoths out there. He said that deep-sea explorers should bring paleontologists with them when they explore the seafloor because they know what to look for.
The deep sea needs protection from mining and drilling.
There is a lot of value in having undisturbed habitat in this environment.
The deep sea contains clusters of minerals that are rich in valuable elements such as nickel, titanium, and cobalt, which are found only in the deep sea. Although no one has started harvesting the nodules, mining companies have not been quiet about their desire to do so.
It is likely that the tusk would have been buried by the seamount's silt if it had been disturbed by oil or minerals. Most of the deep sea is protected. The scientists say that preserving this vast and mysterious realm could ensure a future for the countless creatures that live there and also ensure that natural, ancient treasures can still be found.
It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for Dr. Haddock to have an encounter with this creature. I keep imagining what it would be like to be a mammoth. I think about how it ended up in the ocean and how it was waiting for us to come across it.
