Last week, a farmer in Michigan excavated mammoth bones in his field. At first the farmer mistook the animal for a bent fence post until he realised that it was animal remains.
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Bristle has already donated the discovered remains to the University of Michigan’s Museum of Paleontology.
The American mastodon is the youngest and best-known species of the genus and disappeared from America 11-12,000 years ago as part of a mass extinction. Aside from the pelvis, they found the skull and two tusks, along with numerous vertebrae, ribs and both shoulder blades from a woolly mammoth that lived up to 15,000 years ago.
“We think that humans were here and may have butchered and stashed the meat so that they could come back later for it”, says Daniel Fisher, professor in Earth and environmental sciences and ecology and evolutionary biology departments at the University of Michigan.
“You’d be surprised how often we get neat things coming in here, but this is one of the coolest days ever”, assistant director of education for the natural history museum Kira Berman said as she watched the truck being unloaded. “There are only 10 similar sites in Michigan where a significant portion of a woolly mammoth skeleton was found. He says this one was likely 40 years old when it probably was killed by humans”, said Fisher. The kids were excited, Bristle added.
“When my 5-year-old grandson came over and saw the pelvis, he just stood there with his jaw wide open and stared”.
The discovery was made by Jim Bristle while he was doing building work on his land.
Bristle gave the U-M team one day to recover the remains. They’ve been driving into Chelsea, the closest town, and asking for directions.
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Video footage showed the bones being recovered in a 10ft-deep pit by a team from the university.
