AMS dating mammoth bones; comparison with conventional dating.

Abstract

Fossilized Siberian mammoth remains are important indicators of environmental change in the Late Pleistocene. The NSF-Arizona AMS Laboratory radiocarbon results on amino acid separations compare well with mammoth bone collagen from the same specimens treated by HCI and dated by beta counting (the Russian Academy Geological Institute Radiocarbon Laboratory). Neither laboratory was aware of the other's dates for these comparisons. The results coincide very closely (a difference of 50-800 yr), and demonstrate that AMS dating provides a very good perspective for applications of past mammoth population studies.