News Paleontology

Tusk analyses suggest weaning took years

By Sid Perkins

- More than 2 years ago

From Mesa, Ariz., at a meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology

RUNNING IN CIRCLES. The proportions of carbon and nitrogen isotopes in the collagen extracted from layers of this young mammoth’s tusk suggest that mammoths weren’t fully weaned until about age 6. Rountrey and Fisher/Univ. Michigan

Tusks of juvenile mammoths carry a chemical record of the animals’ environment and behaviors, including how quickly they became weaned from their mothers, scientists have found.