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Testosterone in tusks: Hormones in mammoth fossils

60 points by LinuxBender 4y ago

nkozyra 4y ago
I can't tell if it's just late in the day or if that's a really poorly written article across the board. > Remarkably, this is the first time hormones have been seen in the extant or the extinct. Later in the article they say they identified testosterone in modern elephants. Was this done _in response_ to finding it in mammoths? It's the only way the first part of this article makes sense. > Given their close relation to Asian elephants, is it surprising that musth has been discovered? Huh? This is the first mention of Asian elephants in this article. Have they had hormonal markers found in their tusks? If so, back to question #1. > By contrast, they couldn’t test for female hormones to test “for pregnancy, for instance,” because they didn’t have a modern female elephant tusk to compare. This is confusing. Is it because they're looking at Asian elephants (where the females do not have tusks) or because ... other reasons? I realize this is a freelance article, but ... yikes.
- namaria 4y ago
  Every time I read something on the news on a topic I have some knowledge about and see how off the mark they can be, I try to remind myself how much nonsense goes under my radar on topics I know little to nothing about.
pengaru 4y ago
Does this mean all those Chinese buyers of poached rhinoceros horns for supposed virility are actually getting something if there's testosterone in there?
- LinuxBender 4y ago
  Probably not unless it was an incredibly high dose due to bio-availability [1] assuming you meant by eating it. There are ways to by-pass the first pass effect [2]. [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharmacokinetics_of_testosterone#Oral_testosterone https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharmacokinetics_of_testostero... [2] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharmacokinetics_of_testosterone#Rectal_administration https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharmacokinetics_of_testostero...
- ftxbro 4y ago
  Rhino horns are modified hair and mammoth tusks are modified teeth so they are very different. But maybe there can be some testosterone in the rhino horns idk. EDIT: It seems you are right, there is some testosterone in hair (https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s002160050330 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s002160050330) so probably there can be some amount in rhino horns. I don't know if eating it would have medical effects, for example maybe there's not enough or maybe it's not in the right form or maybe eating it doesn't work.
- namaria 4y ago
  You know, sometimes I get mad at Chinese food fetishes killing off a species or another, then I remember American car fetish is destroying the human habitat...
23B1 4y ago
That headline tho...
Owen69 4y ago
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60 points by LinuxBender 4y ago

I can't tell if it's just late in the day or if that's a really poorly written article across the board. > Remarkably, this is the first time hormones have been seen in the extant or the extinct. Later in the article they say they identified testosterone in modern elephants. Was this done _in response_ to finding it in mammoths? It's the only way the first part of this article makes sense. > Given their close relation to Asian elephants, is it surprising that musth has been discovered? Huh? This is the first mention of Asian elephants in this article. Have they had hormonal markers found in their tusks? If so, back to question #1. > By contrast, they couldn’t test for female hormones to test “for pregnancy, for instance,” because they didn’t have a modern female elephant tusk to compare. This is confusing. Is it because they're looking at Asian elephants (where the females do not have tusks) or because ... other reasons? I realize this is a freelance article, but ... yikes.

namaria 4y ago
Every time I read something on the news on a topic I have some knowledge about and see how off the mark they can be, I try to remind myself how much nonsense goes under my radar on topics I know little to nothing about.

pengaru 4y ago

Does this mean all those Chinese buyers of poached rhinoceros horns for supposed virility are actually getting something if there's testosterone in there?

LinuxBender 4y ago
Probably not unless it was an incredibly high dose due to bio-availability [1] assuming you meant by eating it. There are ways to by-pass the first pass effect [2]. [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharmacokinetics_of_testosterone#Oral_testosterone https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharmacokinetics_of_testostero... [2] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharmacokinetics_of_testosterone#Rectal_administration https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharmacokinetics_of_testostero...
ftxbro 4y ago
Rhino horns are modified hair and mammoth tusks are modified teeth so they are very different. But maybe there can be some testosterone in the rhino horns idk. EDIT: It seems you are right, there is some testosterone in hair (https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s002160050330 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s002160050330) so probably there can be some amount in rhino horns. I don't know if eating it would have medical effects, for example maybe there's not enough or maybe it's not in the right form or maybe eating it doesn't work.
namaria 4y ago
You know, sometimes I get mad at Chinese food fetishes killing off a species or another, then I remember American car fetish is destroying the human habitat...

23B1 4y ago

That headline tho...

Owen69 4y ago

[dead]