How can mammoth fangs help in prehistoric times

The sale of ivory elephant – a solid white material of the elephant’s tusks, which the elephants are often killed – illegal. Selling ivory collected from the extinct mammoth residue, however, no. Since it is difficult to determine the two, illegal merchants slip under the radar by mixing ivory in the elephant with the legally traded ivory. However, the new forensic tool may soon put this nefarious trick.

China’s forensic medical scientists indicate that the authorities can distinguish Analog (Forms of an element that does not collapse over time). If this approach is widely adopted, it may serve as a quick examination of the sample before applying more expensive methods and time.

“The mammoths cost a small part of the ivory price in the elephant, but the two are considered completely different materials by successes and experts, because the ivory mammoth usually lacks the deep white color of the ivory elephant,” Pavel Toropov, one of the researchers at Hong Kong University and participated in the study expected today in the magazine. borderSay the border statement. “One of the traders compared them to” Lamborghini and Ford. “The ivory mammoth cannot be a real alternative to ivory in the elephant, but its value may lie in providing legal coverage of the elephant.”

Currently, the most accurate method of urgent formation of each other is through molecular analysis (study of molecules) or radioactive carbon dating (which is technique so far organic materials), both of which are expensive and take a long time.

The proportions of the isotopes differ depending on factors such as the environment. Since the ice age preserved in the highly high Siberian health soil that lived in a home is completely different from the tropical elephants today, the proportions of the isotopes in their fangs should be different. In this context, Toropov and his team decided to investigate whether analyzing these differences could provide a better way to distinguish between two types of ivory.

The team conducted a stable counterpart on 44 pieces of ivory in the elephant and 35 pieces of huge ivory, and a study specifically the proportions of the analogy stable carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen and sulfur. While this approach revealed a noticeable overlap of carbon, nitrogen and sulfur counterparts, researchers documented a very little overlap in the proportions of the elephant and mammoths of oxygen, not hydrogen.

“This is because water elements are drunk by mammoths in areas with high legal lines such as Siberia have distinctive analogues, compared to the water elements that elephants eat in tropical latitudes,” the first author Maria Santos, also a researcher from Hong Kong University. Simply put, an analysis of the proportions of the sedents of oxygen and hydrogen in a suspected ivory object is an effective way to determine whether it comes from an elephant or mammoth.

While more research is needed before using this approach in the court case, “We hope that the protocol described in our study will be applied to examine large groups of supposed ivory objects,” he added Santos. “Samples that have a counterpart from the elephant ivory can then be tested in more expensive ways and take a long time, such as radiological dating. This can help fight illegal ivory trade more effectively and close the potential laundry gap.”

The way I see, there is a simpler solution: make all ivory illegal.