They were genuinely pioneering territory: moving through landscapes where the ecological communities were still in flux, where the large animals they encountered had likely never seen human hunters before, and where the specific resources and challenges of the Pacific Northwest coast and hinterland were very different from what we see today.

The AMS dates from the Manis site established when this moment occurred.

The CT scanning that came next began to establish what happened.

Looking Inside Without Destroying The Evidence

The fragments embedded in the mastodon rib presented an immediate practical problem: how do you study them without destroying the evidence?

The rib itself — the context for the embedded fragments — was irreplaceable.

It was a unique specimen.