More than 90 percent of ivory in large, seized shipments came from elephants that died less than three years before, . A team of scientists at the University of Utah, the Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ and partner institutions came to this conclusion by combining a new approach to radiocarbon dating for ivory samples with genetic analysis tools developed by Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ biology professor Sam Wasser.