Tusk of unique fossil elephant (Chelyabinsk region): mineralogical-isotopic-geochemical properties and paleoecological reconstructions

Abstract

For the first time, mineralogical, isotope, and geochemical studies have been
carried out on a Pleistocene elephant tusk from the easternmost location of this type
of mammal. The obtained data from complex mineralogical-isotope-geochemical
studies allow us to draw the following conclusion. Judging by the properties of the
tusk, the fossil elephant discovered in the Chelyabinsk region lived in conditions that
were uncomfortable for itself in terms of climate and diet, practiced coprophagy and,
most likely, died as a result of an accident. It can be assumed that it belonged to a
population of extinct elephants that migrated east during a period of severe cooling
in the middle of the Middle Valdai (Kargin) interstadial (42–38 thousand years ago),
which peaked in the territory of modern Western Europe.