Ice age graveyard reveals its secrets |
An ice age graveyard where dozens of huge animals including mammoths, mastodons and a giant ground sloth died up to 150,000 years ago has been unearthed near a popular mountain ski resort. |
The bones of a mammoth have been found at the site Photo: ALAMY |
The fossilised remains, which were discovered in sediment at the bottom of a drained reservoir in the Rocky Mountains, Colorado, are thought to be one of the largest collection of animals from the last ice age to be found in one place and it is already providing scientists with new insights into the prehistoric environment. |
Contractors preparing the ground for the construction of a new dam at the reservoir near Snowmass Village, which is part of the Aspen ski resort, uncovered the bones of a mammoth and now more than 600 bones have been recovered from beneath the lake bed before heavy snow halted the excavation. |
Palaeontologists leading the dig found the remains of four Columbian mammoths; 10 American mastodons, a distant relation of the mammoth and elephant; four ice age bison, which were twice the size of modern bison; a species of ice age deer; and a Jefferson's ground sloth and a tiger salamander. |
They expect to find more fossils when the return to the site when the snow melts in the spring. |
Researchers, including experts at the Royal Holloway University of London, are now attempting to piece together how the animals came to be buried in one place and what the ice age landscape would have looked like at the time. |
Posted via email from joepostings's posterous
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment