Stable isotopes of mammoths and mastodons have the potential to illuminate ecological changes in late Pleistocene landscapes and megafaunal populations as these species approached extinction. The ecological factors at play in this extinction remain unresolved, but isotopes of bone collagen (δ13C, δ15N) and tooth enamel (δ13C, δ18O, 87Sr/86Sr) from midwestern North America are leveraged to examine ecological and behavioral changes that occurred during the last interglacial-glacial cycle. Both species had significant C3 contributions to their diets and experienced increasing levels of niche overlap as they approached extinction. A subset of mastodons after the last glacial maximum exhibit low δ15N values that may represent expansion into a novel ecological niche, perhaps densely occupied by other herbivores. Stable isotopes from serial and microsampled enamel show increasing seasonality and decreasing temperatures as mammoths transitioned from Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 5e to glacial conditions (MIS 4, MIS 3, MIS 2). Isotopic variability in enamel suggests mobility patterns and life histories have potentially large impacts on the interpretation of their stable isotope ecology. This study further refines the ecology of midwestern mammoths and mastodons demonstrating increasing seasonality and niche overlap as they responded to landscape changes in the final millennia before extinction.

Riverbluff Cave, in Greene County, Missouri, is a short single passage between the James River and its direct tributary, Ward Branch. Before stream incision the cave functioned as a spillway/piracy between the two streams during high-discharge events and accumulated a sequence of stratified fluvial sediments within the cave. Five cosmogenic-nuclide burial ages for these sediments range from 0.984 to 0.570 Ma. These ages are consistent with both the stratigraphic order of the samples and the inferred position of the Matuyama/Brunhes paleomagnetic boundary. These ages indicate that sandy channel-facies deposits derived from Ward Branch entrances began to accumulate within the cave as early as 0.984±0.065 Ma. This facies is capped by highly fossiliferous gravel beds dated at 0.658±0.065 Ma, which contain abundant mammoth bones (possibly Mammuthus trogontherii) and other vertebrates. The high concentration implies that this deposit may record some type of mass-mortality event. By 0.570±0.072 Ma, all Ward Branch entrances had been abandoned because of incision, and a laminated red clay derived from backflow from flooding along the James River capped the older channel sediments.

Fossils of Columbian mammoths (Mammuthus columbi) and pygmy mammoths (Mammuthus exilis) have been reported from Channel Islands National Park, California. Most date to the last glacial period (Marine Isotope Stage [MIS] 2), but a tusk of M. exilis (or immature M. columbi) was found in the lowest marine terrace of Santa Rosa Island. Uranium-series dating of corals yielded ages from 83.8 ± 0.6 ka to 78.6 ± 0.5 ka, correlating the terrace with MIS 5.1, a time of relatively high sea level. Mammoths likely immigrated to the islands by swimming during the glacial periods MIS 6 (~ 150 ka) or MIS 8 (~ 250 ka), when sea level was low and the island–mainland distance was minimal, as during MIS 2. Earliest mammoth immigration to the islands likely occurred late enough in the Quaternary that uplift of the islands and the mainland decreased the swimming distance to a range that could be accomplished by mammoths. Results challenge the hypothesis that climate change, vegetation change, and decreased land area from sea-level rise were the causes of mammoth extinction at the Pleistocene/Holocene boundary on the Channel Islands. Pre-MIS 2 mammoth populations would have experienced similar or even more dramatic changes at the MIS 6/5.5 transition.