Daniel Fisher

The animal kingdom is full of sexual competition, and extinct creatures are no exception: Researchers found evidence that male woolly mammoths experienced hormone-induced states of aggression towards their rivals, much like modern bull elephants.Rare Polar Bear Attack in Canada | Extreme EarthThis phenomenon is known as musth, and it describes a state of heightened sexual activity and aggression in male elephants. A team of researchers examining a 33,000-year-old mammoth tusk found annualsurges in testosterone and other…

A mounted skeleton of the Buesching mastodon.Photo: Eric Bronson, Michigan PhotographyResearchers have detailed the life and grisly death of a male mastodon that died 13,200 years ago by scrutinizing the chemical composition of one of its tusks. The tusk revealed the mastodon grew up in the Great Lakes area and, later in life, made annual trips to a mating ground in northeastern Indiana—until it died there at age 34, after being stabbed in the face by another mastodon.Mastodons (Mammut americanum) were proboscideans that…