Richard Gwin/Journal-World PhotoIf mastodons had used dental floss, two Kansas University researchers might not have made their most recent breakthrough about the ancient elephants.
The researchers studied plaque that is more than 10,000 years old to make a discovery about the mastodons’ diet.
Katrina Gobetz, a KU graduate student in vertebrate paleontology from South Windsor, Conn., and Steve Bozarth, an adjunct professor of geography, examined plant cells that were trapped in hardened plaque on teeth from mastodons, which became extinct about 11,000 years ago during the last ice age. Earlier this year, the pair’s research paper was published in Quaternary Research, a scientific journal.
“Mastodons have always been thought to have lived around bogs, marshy areas, and they ate the leaves of trees and shrubs,” said Gobetz, who has a master’s degree in geology from the University of Indiana. “But this would suggest they also ate grasses at least these were.”
Last year, Gobetz started studying the 12-inch-long molars from four mastodons, found in the Lawrence area, for one of Bozarth’s classes. She said she used a dental pick to scrape off the calcified plaque, which was placed in different chemicals to obtain the plant cells, known as phytoliths. She said the phytoliths survived because they were filled with silica, a hardened crystal.
With Bozarth’s help, Gobetz said, she determined that 86 percent of the cells came from grasses, mainly cool, moist grasses. That means there were probably few trees in eastern Kansas at that time, she said.
“These particular mastodons were at the end of their range, and they ate a lot of grass,” she said. “It’s kind of neat because this shows us they were able to eat different things.”
Larry Martin, curator of paleontology at KU’s Museum of Natural History and Gobetz’s adviser, said the new research will be useful to learn more about the diets of other extinct animals.
“Nobody had ever done this with an extinct animal before,” he said.
Someday, Gobetz said it would be interesting to compare the eastern Kansas mastodons to ones found in the wooded areas of the East Coast or even western Kansas. In the meantime, she said, she plans to test the plaque from some fossils that are about 50 million years old.
“This is a pretty pioneering technique,” she said. “Usually there’s not much we can get about the diet from these preserved fossils.”
Richard Gwin/Journal-World PhotoIf mastodons had used dental floss, two Kansas University researchers might not have made their most recent breakthrough about the ancient elephants.
The researchers studied plaque that is more than 10,000 years old to make a discovery about the mastodons’ diet.
Katrina Gobetz, a KU graduate student in vertebrate paleontology from South Windsor, Conn., and Steve Bozarth, an adjunct professor of geography, examined plant cells that were trapped in hardened plaque on teeth from mastodons, which became extinct about 11,000 years ago during the last ice age. Earlier this year, the pair’s research paper was published in Quaternary Research, a scientific journal.
“Mastodons have always been thought to have lived around bogs, marshy areas, and they ate the leaves of trees and shrubs,” said Gobetz, who has a master’s degree in geology from the University of Indiana. “But this would suggest they also ate grasses at least these were.”
Last year, Gobetz started studying the 12-inch-long molars from four mastodons, found in the Lawrence area, for one of Bozarth’s classes. She said she used a dental pick to scrape off the calcified plaque, which was placed in different chemicals to obtain the plant cells, known as phytoliths. She said the phytoliths survived because they were filled with silica, a hardened crystal.
With Bozarth’s help, Gobetz said, she determined that 86 percent of the cells came from grasses, mainly cool, moist grasses. That means there were probably few trees in eastern Kansas at that time, she said.
“These particular mastodons were at the end of their range, and they ate a lot of grass,” she said. “It’s kind of neat because this shows us they were able to eat different things.”
Larry Martin, curator of paleontology at KU’s Museum of Natural History and Gobetz’s adviser, said the new research will be useful to learn more about the diets of other extinct animals.
“Nobody had ever done this with an extinct animal before,” he said.
Someday, Gobetz said it would be interesting to compare the eastern Kansas mastodons to ones found in the wooded areas of the East Coast or even western Kansas. In the meantime, she said, she plans to test the plaque from some fossils that are about 50 million years old.
“This is a pretty pioneering technique,” she said. “Usually there’s not much we can get about the diet from these preserved fossils.”
Richard Gwin/Journal-World PhotoIf mastodons had used dental floss, two Kansas University researchers might not have made their most recent breakthrough about the ancient elephants.
The researchers studied plaque that is more than 10,000 years old to make a discovery about the mastodons’ diet.
Katrina Gobetz, a KU graduate student in vertebrate paleontology from South Windsor, Conn., and Steve Bozarth, an adjunct professor of geography, examined plant cells that were trapped in hardened plaque on teeth from mastodons, which became extinct about 11,000 years ago during the last ice age. Earlier this year, the pair’s research paper was published in Quaternary Research, a scientific journal.
“Mastodons have always been thought to have lived around bogs, marshy areas, and they ate the leaves of trees and shrubs,” said Gobetz, who has a master’s degree in geology from the University of Indiana. “But this would suggest they also ate grasses at least these were.”
Last year, Gobetz started studying the 12-inch-long molars from four mastodons, found in the Lawrence area, for one of Bozarth’s classes. She said she used a dental pick to scrape off the calcified plaque, which was placed in different chemicals to obtain the plant cells, known as phytoliths. She said the phytoliths survived because they were filled with silica, a hardened crystal.
With Bozarth’s help, Gobetz said, she determined that 86 percent of the cells came from grasses, mainly cool, moist grasses. That means there were probably few trees in eastern Kansas at that time, she said.
“These particular mastodons were at the end of their range, and they ate a lot of grass,” she said. “It’s kind of neat because this shows us they were able to eat different things.”
Larry Martin, curator of paleontology at KU’s Museum of Natural History and Gobetz’s adviser, said the new research will be useful to learn more about the diets of other extinct animals.
“Nobody had ever done this with an extinct animal before,” he said.
Someday, Gobetz said it would be interesting to compare the eastern Kansas mastodons to ones found in the wooded areas of the East Coast or even western Kansas. In the meantime, she said, she plans to test the plaque from some fossils that are about 50 million years old.
“This is a pretty pioneering technique,” she said. “Usually there’s not much we can get about the diet from these preserved fossils.”
Richard Gwin/Journal-World PhotoIf mastodons had used dental floss, two Kansas University researchers might not have made their most recent breakthrough about the ancient elephants.
The researchers studied plaque that is more than 10,000 years old to make a discovery about the mastodons’ diet.
Katrina Gobetz, a KU graduate student in vertebrate paleontology from South Windsor, Conn., and Steve Bozarth, an adjunct professor of geography, examined plant cells that were trapped in hardened plaque on teeth from mastodons, which became extinct about 11,000 years ago during the last ice age. Earlier this year, the pair’s research paper was published in Quaternary Research, a scientific journal.
“Mastodons have always been thought to have lived around bogs, marshy areas, and they ate the leaves of trees and shrubs,” said Gobetz, who has a master’s degree in geology from the University of Indiana. “But this would suggest they also ate grasses at least these were.”
Last year, Gobetz started studying the 12-inch-long molars from four mastodons, found in the Lawrence area, for one of Bozarth’s classes. She said she used a dental pick to scrape off the calcified plaque, which was placed in different chemicals to obtain the plant cells, known as phytoliths. She said the phytoliths survived because they were filled with silica, a hardened crystal.
With Bozarth’s help, Gobetz said, she determined that 86 percent of the cells came from grasses, mainly cool, moist grasses. That means there were probably few trees in eastern Kansas at that time, she said.
“These particular mastodons were at the end of their range, and they ate a lot of grass,” she said. “It’s kind of neat because this shows us they were able to eat different things.”
Larry Martin, curator of paleontology at KU’s Museum of Natural History and Gobetz’s adviser, said the new research will be useful to learn more about the diets of other extinct animals.
“Nobody had ever done this with an extinct animal before,” he said.
Someday, Gobetz said it would be interesting to compare the eastern Kansas mastodons to ones found in the wooded areas of the East Coast or even western Kansas. In the meantime, she said, she plans to test the plaque from some fossils that are about 50 million years old.
“This is a pretty pioneering technique,” she said. “Usually there’s not much we can get about the diet from these preserved fossils.”
