Ancient protein analysis — the method that established the mastodon origin of the embedded material — has improved substantially since the 2011 work, and would potentially allow even more specific identification of the individual or population of mastodon from which the point was made, if sufficient protein survives in the embedded fragments.

Future applications of these methods to the Manis specimens might provide additional details about the origin of the weapon tip material.

Ancient DNA — which degrades much faster than proteins — is unlikely to be recoverable from the Manis specimens given their age and burial conditions.

But improvements in extraction methods and sequencing technology have repeatedly surprised researchers by recovering DNA from contexts where it was not expected to survive, and the possibility of ancient DNA from the Manis mastodon itself — which might provide information about the genetic diversity of mastodon populations in the Pacific Northwest — cannot be entirely ruled out.

The broader context in which Manis sits — the Pacific Northwest pre-Clovis record, the coastal migration hypothesis, the technological diversity of early Americans — will continue to be developed by new discoveries in the region.