Scientists hung onto woolly mammoth fossils for 70 years — then discovered a huge mistake: ‘Something was amiss’
Scientists have discovered that fossils believed to be woolly mammoth bones for 70 years actually belong to two species of whales. The misidentification occurred when archaeologist Otto Geist found the bones in Alaska, leading to their incorrect labeling and storage at a museum. Recent tests revealed the fossils are between 2,000 and 3,000 years old, prompting questions about how they ended up far from the coastline.
- ▪The fossils were originally thought to be mammoth bones until DNA testing revealed they belonged to a minke whale and a North Pacific right whale.
- ▪The bones were found in Alaska by archaeologist Otto Geist in the 1950s and were mislabeled for decades.
- ▪Radiocarbon dating indicated the fossils were much younger than expected for mammoths, which went extinct around 10,000 years ago.
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Archaeology Scientists hung onto woolly mammoth fossils for 70 years — then discovered a huge mistake: ‘Something was amiss’ By Ben Cost Published May 27, 2026, 3:54 p.m. ET The fossils were believed to be mammoth bones for 70 years -- until tests revealed a surprisingly different species. Science Alert See more of our coverage in your search results. Add The New York Post on Google Is it free woolly? Scientists were flabbergasted after discovering that the mammoth backbones that had been housed in an Alaskan museum for 70 years actually belonged to a whale, per a study published in the Journal of Quaternary Science.
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