Kendall Travarca | 2025 I.S. Symposium

Name: Kendall Travarca
Title: Antler Beam Analysis of Species in the Alceini Tribe
Major: Environmental Geoscience
Minor: Archaeology
Advisors: Shelley Judge; Greg Wiles; Eva Lyon

Moose today, known as Alces alces, exists as four subspecies within North America in the taxonomic tribe Alceini. While much is known about these amazing species, their ancestry remains unsolved due to lack of fossilized remains belonging to possible ancestors. Unlike species such as Cervalces scotti, which lived alongside Alces alces and have full skeletal remains, larger species such as Cervalces latifrons and Cervalces latifrons postremus exist only as remains in teeth, long bones, partial skulls, and antlers.

While fossils of possible ancestors to moose, such as Cervalces latifrons and Cervalces latifrons postremus, are extremely limited, antler beams of all four species discussed are plenty within their remains. In order to gain a better understanding of these species and their relations to one other, t-tests were performed in order to determine significance between species measurements.

T-test results showed that the antler beam diameters of Cervalces scotti and Cervalces latifrons postremus were the most similar relative to all other tests between other species. While these two species existed in different habitats and possibly at different times, we can hypothesize that Cervalces latifrons postremus may have faced displacement in forests and may have been forced to become smaller over time due to lack of resources in an unfit environment. This shrinkage in size may have resulted in fossils that measure to the sizes of Cervalces scotti.

Posted in Symposium 2025 on May 1, 2025.