Ancient tooth found near Old Crow, Yukon, belongs to earliest woolly mammoth in North America

Tori Fitzpatrick · CBC News

· Posted: Apr 19, 2025 6:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 10 hours ago

Scientists person discovered that a bony recovered near Old Crow, Yukon, successful 2018 belonged to the oldest known woolly mammoth successful North America.

The find challenges the fashionable content that mammoths crossed into North America from Siberia successful the past 100,000 years, said Love Dalén, a prof of evolutionary genomics astatine Stockholm University and 1 of the scientists down the research. 

"We person had results successful erstwhile probe suggesting that mammoths were successful North America rather a agelong clip ago, hundreds of thousands of years ago, but those specimens person ne'er been identified," Dalén said. "So uncovering this truly confirms our earlier theory."

The findings are elaborate successful a insubstantial published past week that reports a cardinal years of genomic improvement successful mammoths. Dalén was among a squad of scientists that analyzed mitochondrial DNA – genomes successful the parts of the compartment liable for generating vigor – from samples that spanned much than 1 cardinal years of time. In doing so, the probe squad besides developed a caller method to day specimens, which volition assistance scientists way the movements of past mammoths from hundreds of thousands of years ago. 

Yukon paleontologist Grant Zazula, on with a squad of researchers, recovered the bony successful the Old Crow River basin connected Vuntut Gwitchin accepted territory successful 2018. Each summer, successful collaboration with the First Nation, scientists sojourn the basin successful hunt of past fossils. 

"It's inactive astir apt 1 of the astir astonishing places successful the satellite for crystal property paleontology due to the fact that it seems similar each clip we spell there, there's different spectacular discovery," Zazula said. "For galore species, it seems to beryllium the spot wherever we find these precise unsocial specimens."

"We've been connected this benignant of quest for a fig of years looking for North America's archetypal mammoths successful the Old Crow region," Zazula said.

In 2018, Zazula and his squad were searching successful a salient furniture of volcanic ash wrong the basin. Volcanic ash beds are important, helium says, due to the fact that they supply clip markers from the crystal age. Any fossils recovered successful that furniture are astatine slightest 160,000 years old, says Zazula. 

One greeting portion searching the bed, the squad spotted what they had been looking for. 

"We saw conscionable a sliver of this mammoth bony sticking retired of the bluff successful a spot that we knew was beneath the volcanic ash," helium said. "When I saw the tooth, I knew that it was morphologically a woolly mammoth."

Zazula sent a illustration from the bony to Dalén's lab, wherever the squad analyzed the tooth's mitochondrial DNA. The investigation confirmed that the bony belonged to a woolly mammoth and dated it to astir 220,000 years old. 

"It truly is precise old. It's not the past crystal age, it's not adjacent the crystal property earlier that, but astir apt the crystal property earlier that crystal property wherever this mammoth lived," Dalén said.

Discovery leaves scientists with a 'mystery'

The find has near scientists with galore unanswered questions, says Dalén. 

The mitochondrial DNA investigation besides showed that the bony belongs to a antithetic familial lineage than astir mammoths successful North America during the past crystal age, helium said. 

"There's inactive a enigma going connected here," Dalén said. "What's going connected with woolly mammoth improvement successful North America that we haven't wholly wrapped our heads around?"

There are 3 antithetic lineages of woolly mammoths based connected their mitochondrial DNA, says Dalén. Two of those lineages person been recovered successful North America, but astir each of the samples from the past crystal property beryllium to a lineage known arsenic clade one. 

However, the bony that was discovered successful Old Crow successful 2018 belongs to a lineage known arsenic clade three, Dalén said. 

"So the question is, wherever is clade 1 from?" 

In bid to find the root of woolly mammoths from clade 1 and their narration to earlier mammoths successful clade three, Dalén says scientists request to look for much woolly mammoth remains from the aforesaid clip play arsenic the bony from Old Crow.

This summer, Dalén plans to instrumentality a squad to different determination successful the Old Crow River basin successful hunt of much fossils to assistance them unravel this mystery. 

"If we tin find immoderate mammoth worldly astatine this different tract this summertime … these could beryllium truly important to link the dots betwixt the earliest mammoths successful North America and mammoths successful Siberia," Zazula said.