Leading the work is Dr\u00a0Jaros\u0142aw Wilczy\u0144ski, an archaeologist and associate professor at the Institute of Systematics and Evolution of Animals at the Polish Academy of Sciences in Krak\u00f3w.<\/p>\n
He coordinates an international team working to piece together what these bone deposits can tell us about life between 35\u00a0000 and 25\u00a0000 years ago.<\/p>\n
Reading the bones<\/p>\n
To answer these questions, the team combines traditional archaeology with a wide range of scientific techniques. Excavations are paired with laboratory analysis drawing on expertise in genetics, isotope chemistry, geoarchaeology and palaeoclimatology.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are bringing together fieldwork and laboratory work,\u201d Wilczy\u0144ski said. \u201cWe collect new material, but we also re-examine museum collections using methods that were not available before.\u201d<\/p>\n
By studying stable isotopes in bones, scientists can tell what mammoths ate, where they lived and even the season they died.\u00a0Ancient DNA (aDNA) extracted from mammoth remains is helping researchers build a picture of these extinct mammoth populations \u2013 how large they were, how they were related and how they changed over time.<\/p>\n
To go further, the team is also using strontium and oxygen isotope analysis, led by\u00a0Alex Pryor\u00a0at the University of Exeter. The ratios of these isotopes in teeth and bones act like natural geographic markers, allowing researchers to trace where individual mammoths lived and moved during their lifetimes.<\/p>\n
High-precision radiocarbon dating is refining the timeline of each site, while a better understanding of past environments is helping to reveal the landscapes and climates of the period.<\/p>\n
Wilczy\u0144ski and his team are also careful to balance analysis with conservation. \u201cExcavation and analytical techniques have improved over the years,\u201d he said. \u201cWe can preserve samples more carefully and, where possible, excavate new material rather than risk damage to historical collections.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tracing ancient DNA<\/p>\n
The aDNA work of the MAMBA team is led by David D\u00edez del Molino, a researcher at the Centre for Palaeogenetics in Stockholm, a joint institute of Stockholm University and the Swedish Museum of Natural History.<\/p>\n
He specialises in analysing aDNA, and uses\u00a0aDNA\u00a0and computational methods to study the evolution of extinct species and past ecosystems. MAMBA\u2019s work posed certain challenges for the preservation of samples.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost of the aDNA we study comes from well-preserved mammoth samples from permafrost deposits. But all mammoth material from MAMBA comes from non-permafrost contexts, which is much more challenging,\u201d D\u00edez del Molino said.<\/p>\n
By developing\u00a0improved DNA extraction methods tailored to degraded samples, the team is unlocking genetic information from specimens long thought unsuitable for analysis, opening up museum collections to a new kind of research.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are hoping to have analysed more than 400 samples by the end of the project,\u201d said D\u00edez del Molino. \u201cGiven our success rate, we are potentially unlocking thousands of historically overlooked specimens for DNA research<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n What the hunters knew<\/p>\n The emerging picture challenges earlier assumptions about human behaviour.<\/p>\n Rather than opportunistic scavengers, the people who lived alongside mammoths appear to have been skilled and organised hunters. They were capable of planning and coordinating complex hunting activities and of processing large kills such as mammoths and other animals.<\/p>\n \u201cThey understood the animals and their environment very well,\u201d said Dr\u00a0Doroth\u00e9e Drucker, a research fellow at the Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment at the University of T\u00fcbingen in Germany. Drucker is an expert in ancient diets and ecosystems.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/shutterstock_589642841.jpg\")
\u00a9Shutterstock\/ GAS-photo<\/p>\n