Sale of material from marine mammals is generally prohibited. Many bone samples from St. Lawrence Island are sold as Steller’s sea cow, an animal driven to extinction by 1768.The sale of these bones is not prohibited. By using radiocarbon dating and stable isotope analysis it is hoped to determine population size, the timing of the collapse and the identity of the bones. Stable isotope analysis can be used to distinguish carnivores from herbivores and marine animals from terrestrial.