Radioactive signatures in whale teeth reveal decades-long life histories
Scientists used radiocarbon layers in the teeth of stranded whales to date their growth and infer diet and migration patterns.
A team led by the SUERC Centre for the Isotope Sciences examined teeth from five stranded whales found on Scottish coasts, using radiocarbon dating to create a "dental time machine" of annual growth layers. The fallout from nuclear weapons testing provided a chronological marker, while a distinct Sellafield signal appeared in a killer whale stranded on Tiree. The method revealed that the sperm whale known as Moby was at least 43 years old when he died in 1997, and a male killer whale stranded on South Uist in 2015 may have been 65 or older, making him one of the oldest recorded.
Combined with carbon and nitrogen stable-isotope data, the study reconstructed diet and migration histories. The findings were published in Frontiers in Marine Science and were funded by the Natural Environment Research Council under UK Research & Innovation.
Why it matters
The approach offers a new way to uncover long-term life histories of marine mammals, aiding conservation and ecological understanding.
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