Finding meaning in mammoth age profiles

This paper summarizes standard methods for estimating ontogenetic ages of individual proboscideans and alternative approaches to presenting the data. Age (a.k.a. mortality) profiling of multiple-mammoth assemblages can provide information about possible causes of death, population health, and other ecologically significant topics, even when the assemblages have been time-averaged. However, caution must be exercised in how the age profiles are calculated and interpreted, to avoid potential misdirection or error.