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November 23, 2021
from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute
The dark depths of the ocean hold many secrets. For more than three decades, MBARI has explored the deep waters off the coast of central California. During an expedition aboard the R / V Western Flyer in 2019, ROV pilot Randy Prickett and scientist Steven Haddock made a strange observation.
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While exploring a sea mountain 300 kilometers (185 miles) off the coast of California and 3,070 meters deep, the team discovered what looked like an elephant’s tusk. Since only a small piece could be collected at this point in time, MBARI returned in July 2021 to retrieve the entire specimen. Now, Haddock and researchers from the Paleogenomics Lab, the UC Santa Cruz Genomics Institute, the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC), and the Museum of Paleontology at the University of Michigan (UM) are studying the tusk / p> The researchers have confirmed that the tusk – about one meter long – came from a Colombian mammoth (Mammuthus columbi). The cold, high-pressure environment of the deep sea has preserved the tusk in a unique way and allows researchers to study it more closely. Computed tomography (CT) scans reveal the full three-dimensional internal structure of the tusk and other information about the animal’s history, such as its age.
The team believes it may be the oldest well-preserved mammoth tusk found from this region of North America. The researchers hope to be able to sequence the ancient DNA embedded in the sample, which could provide valuable insights into how mammoths colonized North America.
« When you explore the deep sea, you start to ‘expect the unexpected,’ but I do I’m still stunned that we stumbled upon the ancient tusk of a mammoth, ”said Haddock. “We are grateful that a multidisciplinary team is analyzing this remarkable specimen, including a geochronologist, oceanographer, and paleogenomist from UCSC and paleontologists from the University of Michigan. Our work to investigate this exciting discovery is just beginning and we look forward to sharing more information. « In the future. »
« The deep-sea shelter on this specimen is different from almost anything we’ve seen elsewhere », said University of Michigan paleontologist Daniel Fisher, who specializes in mammoth and mastodon research. « Other mammoths have been recovered from the ocean, but generally not from depths of more than a few tens of meters. »
Fisher and his colleagues at the UM Museum of Paleontology will use their knowledge of the structure and composition of mammoth tusks to analyze CT scans of the sample. The other members of the UM team are Adam N. Rountrey, Michael D. Cherney, Ethan A. . Shirley and Scott G. Beld.
A team of researchers from UCSC’s Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences will investigate when and how the tusk may have arrived deep offshore i st. Terrence Blackburn, who specializes in geochronology, will examine the mineral crusts on the tusk to determine when it landed on the deep seabed, while Christopher Edwards and Patrick Drake will examine the oceanic currents to better determine where the tusk came from originally comes from. Katie Moon and Beth Shapiro of the Paleogenetics Lab and the UC Santa Cruz Genomics Institute at UCSC will extract and sequence DNA from the tusk to learn more about its lineage and the evolution of mammoths in North America.
The ocean is 99 percent of the space in which life can exist on this planet, and yet we still know very little about it. As interest in deep-sea exploitation through the mining of precious metals has grown – with the potential to endanger many marine animals – this surprising discovery, hidden on the ocean floor for eons, serves as a fragile reminder of the many secrets that remain who are worth our protection.
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