'Mammoth' Bones Kept in a Museum For 70 Years Turn Out to Be Entirely Different Animal

Bones in an Alaska museum long labeled as woolly mammoths were re-dated and found to be whale remains instead.

Radiocarbon dating showed the bones were only about 2,000 to 3,000 years old, not Ice Age mammoths.

Stable isotope signals pointed to a marine animal, and mitochondrial DNA confirmed whale origin.

The bones likely came from a Northern Pacific right whale or a common minke whale.

The case highlights how modern dating and DNA tests can overturn long-held fossil identifications.