Scientists tackling the illegal trade in elephant ivory got more than they bargained for when they found woolly mammoth DNA in trinkets on sale in Cambodia, they revealed Friday.
"It was a surprise for us to find trinkets made from woolly mammoth ivory in circulation, especially so early into our testing and in a tropical country like Cambodia," said Alex Ball, manager at the WildGenes laboratory, a wildlife conservation charity based at Edinburgh Zoo.
The giant mammals have been extinct for around 10,000 years and are not covered by international agreements on endangered species.
WildGenes has been using genetic data to tackle wildlife crime by determining the origin of ivory finding its way to the marketplace.