Using the tusks of a woolly mammoth that lived 17,000 years ago, scientists have found that the animal has come a long way in its life. The mammoth, who lived about 28 years, traveled an estimated 70,000 kilometers in its Alaskan habitat. For comparison, the circumference of the Earth is 40,000 km.

It is not clear whether the animal regularly chose a different habitat and traveled long distances, or whether it regularly moved over a short distance.

Woolly mammoths are related to today’s elephants and roamed the region north of the equator during the Ice Age. “The animal came to different places in Alaska. It’s amazing how wide the distance between those areas is,” said study researcher Matthew Waller of the University of Alaska. BBC.

tusk as notes

Mammoth tusks have continued to grow in cone-shaped layers of ice cream throughout their lives. This makes them comparable to tree rings and provides a detailed chronological record of the animal’s life. “From the moment they’re born to the day they die, they have a diary and it’s written in their canines,” said study co-author Pat Druckenmiller and director of the University of Alaska Museum.