A woolly mammoth that was born 17,100 years ago in Alaska only got a name a few years ago. They call him Kik. For the first two years of his life, Kik stayed close to his mother near the Yukon River Basin. Then he roamed more widely, along the grasslands of Alaska and its land bridge to Asia. When he turned 16, he roamed even further, walking at least ten miles a day, eating grass and covering a 700-mile route, each way, for years. In his short life, Kik walked far enough to circle the earth twice! At around age 27, he slowed down from a lack of food, and starved to death at age 28 in the Kikiakrorak River valley. More than 17,000 years later, his tusks were recovered and studied.
How can we possibly know that much about one woolly mammoth? That's the real story. One of Kik's tusks fell into the hands of isotope scientist Matthew Wooller, who assembled a multinational team of scientists to study it. They used a machine called a Laser Ablation Multi-Collector Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometer. It cost almost a million dollars and was so heavy they put it in the basement for safety. Read how they mapped Kik's whereabouts through his lifetime, which sheds new light on how woolly mammoths lived, at Smithsonian. -via Damn Interesting
(Image credit: Mauricio Antón)