Woolly mammoth δ13C and δ15N values remained amazingly stable throughout the last ∼50,000 years in north-eastern Siberia

Abstract

The range of the woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) covered the northern circumpolar region, over time varying in size and space due to changes in regional climatic conditions. The species survived multiple glacial cycles, but got extinct around the end of the last glacial, between ∼21,000 and 4000 years ago. Stable carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) data of woolly mammoth fossils from western Eurasia and Alaska, show considerable variation during periods of global climatic change and towards time of regional extinction. In North-eastern Siberia, the woolly mammoth survived several millennia longer. The fossil record from North-eastern Siberia yields, therefore, crucial ecological information about the living conditions of the woolly mammoth and plays an important role in the debate about the cause of its extinction. The current dataset comprises an unprecedented amount of δ13C and δ15N data of directly radiocarbon-dated woolly mammoth skeletal samples from North-eastern Siberia, including numerous Holocene samples from Wrangel Island. This study shows that the δ13C and δ15N values of the woolly mammoth remained amazingly stable in this region throughout the last ∼50,000 years of its existence.