Late Pleistocene mammoth remains from Coastal Maine, USA

Abstract

Remains identified as those of a woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) dated at 12,200 ± 55 14C yr B.P. were recovered while excavating in a complex sequence of glaciomarine sediments in Scarborough, Maine, USA. The mammoth was found in the top meter of a fossiliferous unit of mud and sand laminites. These sediments were deposited during a marine regressive phase following the transgression that accompanied northward retreat of the margin of the Laurentide ice sheet. A Portlandia arctica valve from the underlying transgressive unit provides a minimum age of 14,820 ± 105 14C yr B.P. for local deglaciation. The mammoth, an adult female, died in midwinter with no evidence of human involvement. Tusk growth rates and oxygen-isotope variation over the last few years of life record low seasonality. The mammoth was transported to the site as a partial carcass by the late-glacial proto-Saco River. It sank in a near-shore setting, was subjected to additional disarticulation and scattering of elements, and was finally buried in sediments reworked by the shallowing sea.

Paleoindian subsistence strategies and late Pleistocene paleoenvironments in the northeastern and southwestern United States: a tooth wear analysis

“…These findings support the argument that mammoth and mastodon taxa occupied different environmental niches. This conclusion is also supported by stable isotopes analyses (Koch et al, 1998;Hoyle et al, 2004;Metcalfe, 2011).…”

El mastodonte bajo el agua: el registro de Cuvieronius Hyodon Fischer (1814) en la plataforma continental interna del Pacífico de Costa Rica, playa Caletas, provincia de Guanacaste

“…Restos de mamíferos fósiles terrestres han sido frecuentemente recuperados de las plataformas continentales en todo el planeta, destacan los trabajos de van Kolfschoten & Laban 1995 en el Mar del Norte; Withmore et al, 1967;Oldale et al, 1987;Hoyle et al, 2004 en América del Norte y Tonni & Cione, 1999;Rinderknecht, 2006;Lopes et al, 2008;Schiller & Lopes, 2012y Lopes, 2013 en América del Sur, entre otros.…”

“…Tales registros suman poco más de cuatro decenas de molares y premolares de Mammuthus spp. [incluyendo Mammuthus primigenius (Blumenbach) en Alaska y la costa de Maine] y el mastodonte Mammut americanum (Kerr) sensu Whitmore (1967), Oldale et al (1987) y Hoyle et al (2004).…”

Terrestrial and maritime taphonomy: differential effects on spatial distribution of a Late Pleistocene continental drowned faunal bone assemblage from the Pacific coast of Chile

“…Both phases involve poorly understood taphonomic processes, particularly those affecting bone remains located in freshwater and marine environments (Dunbar et al 1989;Stright 1995;Stewart 1999;Hoyle et al 2004;Boessnecker 2013;González et al 2013).…”