Growth process in an elephant tusk: Age estimations based on temporal variations in bomb-radiocarbon content

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• 作者：Toshio Nakamura^a ; ^{nakamura@nendai.nagoya-u.ac.jp" class="auth_mail" title="E-mail the corresponding author} ; Hiroko Koike^b ; Jun Aizawa^c ; Mitsuru Okuno^c
• 关键词：Radiocarbon content ; F14C ; Bomb-produced radiocarbon ; CITES ; Elephant tusk
• 刊名：Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section B: Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms
• 出版年：2015
• 出版时间：15 October 2015
• 年：2015
• 卷：361
• 期：Complete
• 页码：496-499
• 全文大小：1199 K

文摘

In this study, ¹⁴C analysis by accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) was applied to age estimation based on temporal variations in bomb-produced-¹⁴C contents of a full elephant tusk registered at Kyushu University. The tusk measured 175 cm long and 13.8 cm in diameter at the root. Thirty tusk-fragment samples were used for ¹⁴C analysis with AMS to estimate the formation ages of different positions according to catalogued global ¹⁴C contents (F¹⁴C). The F¹⁴C value of the tip of the tusk suggested that the elephant was born around 1980, while that of the root suggested death around 1994, a lifespan of at least 14 years, rather shorter period than the average lifetime of an elephant (ca. 80 years). In addition, the F¹⁴C values of fragments collected along a cross-sectional line suggested that the outer part of the tusk formed first with inner parts being deposited gradually with growth.