American paleontologists from the University of Cincinnati learned that mastodons travel tens of kilometers to mate. They talked about it in a magazine article. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Paleontologists discovered the remains of a mastodon in a peat bog in the northeastern United States state of Indiana in 1988. The animal died about 13,200 years ago in a fight with another mastodon, which apparently pierced the opponent’s skull with a tooth.
Now, after performing isotope analysis of a fragment of a dead mastodon’s tooth, the researchers were able to determine how their habitats changed throughout life – which can be calculated from the chemical elements that pass from the soil to the plants. The animal ate, the water it drank, and it accumulated in the teeth, from which new layers of tissue formed each year.
Originally, the mastodon lived closer to central Indiana. During his adolescence, he apparently left the herd and began traveling, covering about 30 km per month. It is noteworthy that in the summer it always tends to the northeast. Previously, scientists had assumed that mastodons visited these regions to mate, and the discovery confirmed this assumption.
“Every time it warmed up, the mastodon went to the same place,” the study’s authors said.
The researchers hope to be able to examine more samples of male and female mastodon teeth in the future to learn more about how they move for mating and other reasons.