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Ice Age Mammoth Remains Uncovered in Southern New Mexico
Last updated on Friday, January 10, 2003
In the fall of 1990, Marlo Sharpe, a local miner and geologist, and his wife Barbara chanced upon what appeared to be a tusk eroding out of the wall of Dry Gulch, just outside of Nogal, New Mexico.
Archaeologists working at the dig Archaeologists from the Forest Service, on whose land Mr. Sharpe had spotted the tusk, undertook archaeological investigations of the remains of what was believed to be an extinct mammoth or mastodon. Unfortunately, the excavation was plagued by a constant battle with rain and erosion, and so the Forest Service archaeologists decided that "three steps forward, two steps back" was accomplishing little. They decided to turn their efforts toward stabilizing the site and preserving it for future research. This effort was not in vain; Forest Service archaeologists did learn two very important things:
1) the bone was unusually well preserved for not being mineralized, and
2) a good portion, if not all, of the skeleton was present.In September 1997, researchers from the Center for Indigenous Research (CIR) resumed the investigations of the extinct elephant with the excavation of six one-meter-square units placed around the original Forest Service excavation, and reopened a previously excavated unit in which part of the tusk and vertebral column had been exposed.
Small samples of fragmented bone and tusk were taken for possible species identification and radiocarbon dating as well as soil samples from above and adjacent to the elephant before it was reburied. Radiocarbon dating of the bone had proved unsuccessful during the initial investigations, so a sample of organic rich soil from just above the skeletal remains was dated. This soil sample produced a calibrated radiocarbon date range of 9445 to 9545 BP (years before present). Given the moderate rates of deposition at the site, and that the date was taken from sediments above the remains, the elephant could have died as much as a few thousand years earlier. Researchers at CIR are very excited about this date because it puts the death of the elephant within the possible time range for interaction with humans (<13,000 BP).
Vertebrate paleontologist and CIR Scientific Advisory Board member, Dr. Art Harris (University of Texas, El Paso), identified the bone and tusk fragments as probably belonging to a Columbian mammoth (Mammuthus columbi). Columbian mammoths ranged over much of what is now the southern United States and Mexico during the late Pleistocene, from about 100,000 years ago until about 12,000 to 10,000 years ago, when they became extinct. Columbian mammoths most closely resembled Asian elephants, with very little hair, unlike their famous cousin in more northern climates, the Woolly mammoth.
A Columbian mammoth would have stood nearly 14 feet tall at the shoulder and weighed 10 tons, a most formidable prey for any predator, even experienced Paleoindian hunters. Were humans responsible for the mammoth's death, or did it become mired in the prehistoric cienaga and starve to death? These are some of the questions researchers from CIR will address during a four week excavation at the Dry Gulch Mammoth Site in late April and early May. During this excavation researchers will recover all the remaining skeleton and bring it back to a lab in El Paso for preservation and reconstruction. Full-size replicas of the mammoth bones will be made for display, and the original bones will most likely be curated at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science in Albuquerque.
CIR is a non-profit organization whose mission is to conduct archaeological research through multi-disciplinary studies into prehistoric and historic cultures of the Greater Southwest, and to provide equal opportunities for youth and the general public to participate in these scientific studies. Students from several at-risk youth organizations in El Paso and Southern New Mexico will participate in the excavation. CIR is also working in conjunction with the Ruidoso schools to design a mammoth curriculum that will be available online in early April. This curriculum will be used prior to a visit to the site by students from Ruidoso, Capitan, and other area schools during guided tours while the excavation is underway.
Everyone will be able to follow the daily progress of the excavation through the CIR web site. Photographs and descriptions of the excavation will be uploaded onto the web site every evening, and people who view the dig will be able to e-mail questions to researchers in the field. We see the Internet as the perfect method to reach as many people as possible about our research. Premier Internet Consultants, our web site designer, has designed the site to make it accessible to everyone, regardless of what software or hardware they are using.
We've already received many compliments about the design of our web site, which is meant to keep students involved and interested without obscuring the scientific impact of the research we are doing. We're excited about using the web as a medium to allow people to view our ongoing activity, and to interact with us via e-mail. There simply isn't any other medium that gives us this kind of exposure worldwide.
If you are interested in learning more about CIR or the mammoth please visit our web site or e-mail us.
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