By looking at nitrogen in individual tree rings—those yearly layers you can see if you cut a tree in half — the researchers were able to show how important salmon are to the trees.
It's a bit like looking at tree rings, each layer tells a different a story and a different history about what the climate and the environment was doing at the time.
As teeth form, they accumulate microscopic layers of enamel -- like how trees add new growth rings -- and periods of high stress, including trauma, are recorded by disruptions in the layers.
" They were hoping to get some mud, which they could use to date how the environment had changed over millions of years – like the rings on a tree, " says Griffiths.
When taken up by trees, it left a lasting signature in tree rings—giving the scientists a key to pinpoint the year 993 in the three wood samples using radiocarbon dating.
Look inside one and you'll see that they're composed of tubes inside of tubes, so that a cross-section of an osteon looks like the rings of a tree trunk.