Invited Seminar at CES on 26 April 2023 at 3:00 pm titled "On the Trail of an American Mastodon" by Daniel C. Fisher  from Claude W. Hibbard Collegiate Professor of Paleontology, Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Professor of Ecology and Evol

Share this story on

Facebook icon Twitter icon
Topic: 
On the Trail of an American Mastodon
Speaker: 
Daniel C. Fisher , Claude W. Hibbard Collegiate Professor of Paleontology, Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Curator, Paleontology Museum, College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, University of Michigan
Date & Time: 
26 Apr 2023 - 3:00pm
Event Type: 
Invited Seminar
Venue: 
CES Seminar Hall, 3rd Floor, Biological Sciences Building
Coffee/Tea: 
Before the talk
Abstract:

Biologists trying to understand extinct animals typically use rare clues to form tentative inferences. Reconstructing the past is always challenging but analyzing the structure and composition of features that grow continuously sometimes yields evidence of life conditions in chemical and isotopic traces. In this way, we can retrieve records of maturation and behavior archived in mineralized layers of tusks of mastodons (elephant relatives), allowing us to follow a single individual for years, across entire landscapes. For the first time, we identify seasonal migratory behavior that may have been key to meeting the challenges of reproduction near the end of the last Ice Age. We reveal here the story of one mastodon’s struggles and victories, from adolescence to the mating-season battle that ultimately claimed his life.

Speaker Bio: 
Daniel C. Fisher completed undergraduate and graduate work in Geological Sciences at Harvard University (PhD, 1975) and joined the faculty in Geological Sciences at the University of Rochester. In 1979, he moved to the University of Michigan’s Department of Geological Sciences (now Earth & Environmental Sciences) and Museum of Paleontology, where he is now the Claude W. Hibbard Collegiate Professor of Paleontology. Shortly after arriving in Michigan, Fisher was called to several sites where remains of mastodons had been discovered. Evidence at these sites suggested that humans had processed carcasses to remove meat and other materials, sparking his interest in whether human activity had contributed to the late Ice Age extinction of mastodons and mammoths. Fisher’s recent studies of this problem focus on using data on the structure and composition of mastodon and mammoth tusks to reconstruct aspects of their behavior, growth history, nutritional status, reproductive biology, and response to environmental conditions. While still engaged in work on North American material, he has expanded his research to include woolly mammoths in northern Siberia. This arctic perspective, involving spectacular specimens recovered from permafrost, is adding new insights to our understanding of proboscidean paleobiology, climate change, and the late Ice Age extinction.