More than 900 vertebrate bones, ranging from Late Pleistocene to Holocene in age, have been identified in a collection that was recovered by a single dredging operation for the construction of artificial lakes near Lent (Nijmegen, province of Gelderland, the Netherlands). The Late Pleistocene assemblage comprises mainly Weichselian glacial fauna such as mammoths, reindeer and bison. Some Eemian fauna is represented as well, e.g. straight-tusked elephant. The abundance of certain species over others suggests that preservation bias had a considerable impact on this assemblage, while its time-averaged nature resulted in overrepresentation of certain species. A case study is here conducted on a fragmentary skull of a subadult woolly mammoth bull with embedded blowfly puparia. Some of these puparia are fully developed, indicating prolonged exposure of the mammoth carcass.

Archaeologists have long subjected Clovis megafauna kill/scavenge sites to the highest level of scrutiny. In 1987, a Columbian mammoth (Mammuthus columbi) was found in spatial association with a small artifact assemblage in Converse County, Wyoming. However, due to the small tool assemblage, limited nature of the excavations, and questions about the security of the association between the artifacts and mammoth remains, the site was never included in summaries of human-killed/scavenged megafauna in North America. Here we present the results of four field seasons of new excavations at the La Prele Mammoth site that confirm the presence of an associated cultural occupation based on geologic context, artifact attributes, spatial distributions, protein residue analysis, and lithic microwear analysis. This new work identified a more extensive cultural occupation including the presence of multiple discrete artifact clusters in close proximity to the mammoth bone bed. This study confirms the presence of a second Clovis mammoth kill/scavenge site in Wyoming and shows the value in revisiting proposed terminal Pleistocene kill/scavenge sites.

This article investigates how in the Soviet Arctic researchers and indigenous communities searched and understood the mammoth before and during the Cold War. Based on a vast number of published and unpublished sources as well as interviews with scholars and reindeer herders, this article demonstrates that the mammoth, as a paleontological find fusing together features of extinct and extant species, plays an in-between role among various environmental epistemologies. The author refers to moments of interactions among these different actors as “environmental encounters”, which comprise and engage with the physical, political, social and cultural environments of the Arctic. These encounters shape the temporal stabilisations of knowledge which enable the mammoth to live its post-extinct life. This article combines approaches from environmental history and anthropology, history of science and indigenous studies showing the social vitality of a “fossil object”.

Applying radiocarbon (14C) dating using accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) to the skeleton of a mammoth and the associated plant remains have been dated. The fossil of Zhalai Nur mammoth was dated to 43,500 +1000/–900 14C yr BP. The results of optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating, which show that a fluvially deposited gravel layer, from that the mammoth fossils were excavated, formed between 51,300±2100 and 26,600±1200 yr BP, place the new AMS 14C dates in a well-developed chronological framework. Through this study, it can be summarized that, firstly, using suitable sample material, it is possible to obtain reliable AMS 14C results, even when the ages of the target materials approach the upper limits of the method. Second, it reveals that a depositional hiatus exists during the Late Pleistocene, between ca. 26,000 yr BP and ca. 13,000 yr BP. Finally, large rivers and widely distributed areas of alluvial-fluvial deposits existed in this present-day desert area between ca. 51,000 and 26,000 yr BP. These results may shed new light on the study of the Mammuthus-Colelodonta-Bubalus fauna, the most important and fully developed fauna during the Late Pleistocene in northeastern China. They also deepen our understanding about the eco-environments of the region.

Higher δ15N values in bone collagen of mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) compared with coeval large herbivores is a classic trait of the mammoth steppe. An exception applies to the Epigravettian site of Mezhyrich (ca. 18–17.4 ka cal BP) in the central East European plains, where mammoth bones have δ15N values equivalent to or in a lower range than those of horse specimens (Equus sp.). We expanded our preliminary dataset to a larger sampling size of mammoth, other large herbivores, and carnivores from contemporaneous and nearby sites of Buzhanka 2, Eliseevichi, and Yudinovo. The unusual low mammoth δ15N values were confirmed at Buzhanka 2 and for some specimens from Eliseevichi, while most individuals from Yudinovo displayed the expected high δ15N values, meaning similar to those of the large canids. The possibility of a contrast in migration pattern is not supported since the δ34S values, a marker of mobility, do not correlate with the δ15N values of mammoth bone collagen. No clear chronological tendency could be revealed, at least not at the scale of radiocarbon dating. The low range in δ15N values is likely to reflect a change in the specific niche of the mammoth in the southern part of its distribution.

The Berelyokh site includes an exceptional bone horizon consisting of 8431 remains of Mammuthus primigenius. Previous investigations, spanning ~40 years, concluded that the deaths and bone concentration were caused by spring flooding, possibly related to wetter Bølling climates. We review work from these studies with emphasis on under-reported palynological data to provide more detail on paleoenvironmental reconstructions and an alternative interpretation for the age and origin of the bone bed. Palynological results suggest the horizon formed under cool conditions of the last glacial maximum, rather than during a Bølling-type oscillation. Presence of permafrost features and associated tundra pollen taxa in the Berelyokh sections suggest that thermokarst processes, unrelated to climate change, could account for the formation of the bone horizon. The penetration of surface waters into frozen sediments of a high floodplain terrace resulted in the formation of hidden thaw sinks. As thaw continued, the pits expanded with surface soils supported by a viscous water-sediment mixture. The weakened surface gave way under the weight of the mammoths, with the hillside collapsing either due to the animals’ struggles or destabilization related to the thaw sinks. This scenario highlights the hazards of thermokarst terrain for present and future populations of northern animals.

We present and discuss a full list of radiocarbon dates for woolly mammoth and other species of the Mammoth fauna available from Wrangel Island, northeast Siberia, Russia. Most of the radiocarbon dates are published here for the first time. Of the124 radiocarbon dates on mammoth bone, 106 fall between 3700 and 9000 yr ago. We believe these dates bracket the period of mammoth isolation on Wrangel Island and their ultimate extinction, which we attribute to natural causes. The absence of dates between 9–12 ka probably indicates a period when mammoths were absent from Wrangel Island. Long bone dimensions of Holocene mammoths from Wrangel Island indicate that these animals were comparable in size to those on the mainland; although they were not large animals, neither can they be classified as dwarfs. Occurrence of mammoth Holocene refugia on the mainland is suggested. Based on other species of the Mammoth fauna that have also been radiocarbon on Wrangel Island, including horse, bison, musk ox and woolly rhinoceros, it appears that the mammoth was the only species of that fauna that inhabited Wrangel Island in the mid-Holocene.

Mammoth (Mammuthus sp.) teeth are relatively abundant in Quaternary deposits from Eurasia and North America, and their isotopic compositions can be used to reconstruct past seasonal patterns in precipitation, diet, and migration. Strategies for collecting and interpreting such data, however, are strongly dependent on growth rates, which can vary among species, individuals, and within teeth. In this study, we use histological and isotopic measurements to determine enamel growth rates for a Columbian mammoth (Mammuthus columbi) tooth in two directions. Using histology, the growth rate through the enamel thickness (ET; perpendicular to the height of the tooth) is estimated at 0.8 to 1.5 mm/yr. Isotopic sampling through the innermost 0.36 mm of the ET recovered less than half a period of variation (i.e., half an inferred year of growth), which is consistent with the histological estimate for ET growth rate. A combination of histological and isotopic measurements suggests that the enamel extension rate (growth in the height of the tooth) is 13–14 mm/yr. Knowledge of enamel growth rates should improve the design and interpretation of future isotopic studies of mammoth teeth. The combination of histological and isotopic measurements may also prove useful in determining growth rates for other extinct taxa.

The first appearance of mammoth (Mammuthus) is currently used to define the beginning of the Irvingtonian North American Land Mammal Age at about 1.4 Ma. Thereafter, mammoth fossils are common and widespread in North America until the end of the Pleistocene. In contrast to this generally accepted biochronology, recent reports have asserted that mammoth occurs in late Pliocene (ca. 2.5 Ma) alluvium from the Santa Fe River of northern Florida. The supposedly contemporaneous late Pliocene fossil assemblage from the Santa Fe River that produced the mammoth specimens actually consists of a mixture of diagnostic Blancan (late Pliocene) and late Rancholabrean (latest Pleistocene) species. Fossil bones and teeth of the two mammalian faunas mixed together along the Santa Fe River have significantly different rare earth element (REE) signatures. The REE signatures of mammoth are indistinguishable from those of Rancholabrean mammals, yet they are different from those of diagnostic Blancan vertebrates from these same temporally mixed faunas of the Santa Fe River. Thus, no evidence for late Pliocene mammoth exists in Florida, and mammoth fossils remain reliable biochronological indicators for Irvingtonian and Rancholabrean terrestrial sequences throughout mid- and lower-latitude North America.

The Waco Mammoth Site (WMS) in central Texas contains the remains of the largest mammoth herd (Mammuthus columbi) in North America that died in a single catastrophic event. Most mammoths at the site died on a gravel bar of the ancient Bosque River adjacent to a collapsing tributary wall. However, the timing and cause of death of the 26 mammoths documented to date are controversial. The objectives of this research are to: describe and interpret the alluvial stratigraphy and infer the cause of death, employ optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating to determine the timing of death, and analyze stable C isotopes of pedogenic carbonate to infer local plant communities, dietary habits, and summer temperatures. Dating of quartz from seven sediment samples by OSL places the death event to a weighted mean of 66.8 ± 5.0 ka. The site is coeval with Marine Oxygen Isotope Stage 4, consistent with our reconstructed mean July temperatures ~ 4°C cooler than today based on a buried soil isotopic transfer function. Our buried soil isotopic interpretation of a dominance of C3 plants is contrary to previous studies of mammoth tooth enamel at the site suggesting a dietary preference for warm season grasses (C4).

Marc Azéma a Palaeolithic researcher and film maker has been exploring the representation of animal movement in cave art for more than 20 years, and here shares with us his latest examples, culled from the parietal art in the Chauvet Cave (Ardèche) and La Baume Latrone (Gard). Here he has shown that Palaeolithic artists have invented systems of breaking down movement and graphic narrative. His co-author, Florent Rivère, discovered that animal movement was also represented in more dynamic ways—with the use of animals drawn on a spinning disc. In these flickering images created by Palaeolithic people, the authors suggest, lie the origins of cinema.

This newly discovered and excavated site defines an Upper Palaeolithic activity unit consisting of a roasting pit at the centre of an area 5m across. Although the main task was the processing of two mammoths, there were numerous other wild animals in the assemblage. The occupants used flint knives, made bone tools and modelled in baked clay – on which they left their fingerprints, along with imprints of reindeer hair and textiles. Pavlov VI offers an exemplary picture of the basic living unit that made up the settlement clusters of the Gravettian people in Central Europe.

Two new examples of decorative art have turned up at the Gravettian site of Předmostí, dating to the twenty-sixth to twenty-fifth millennium BP: rectilinear grid patterns are executed on one side of flat bones, probably of reindeer. The authors speculate that the two pieces may have come from a single larger decorated object. The grids themselves join a growing repertoire of patterns known from Upper Palaeolithic society, but their role remains enigmatic: counting, calendars or ornament? Art or science?