First AMS radiocarbon date and stable C:N isotope analysis for the Mount Holly Mammoth, Vermont, USA

Abstract

Proboscidean remains have been documented in New England for well over a century, yet few radiocarbon dates exist for these animals in the region. Here, we report the first AMS radiocarbon date and stable carbon:nitrogen isotope analysis for the Mount Holly mammoth, Mount Holly, Vermont. Among proboscidean finds in New England the date of 10 860AE30 (12 882-12 792 cal. BP) from the Mount Holly mammoth is the most recent radiocarbon date for a mammoth or mastodon in New England and the most precisely dated specimen possibly post-dating the accepted age of the initial human settlement of the region during the onset of the Younger Dryas. Stable nitrogen isotope values are low for mammoths both regionally and globally, but consistent with a pattern of falling d 15 N values for mammoths following the Last Glacial Maximum with particularly low values during the Younger Dryas.