MAMMOTH MYSTERY

In the spring of 2018, we excavated a partial skeleton of a Columbian Mammoth from Amargosa Valley, Nevada under permit from the Bureau of Land Management. Three plaster field jackets were constructed around the fossils and transported to the Richard A. Ditton Learning Lab at the Las Vegas Natural History Museum (LVNHM). There, we have been preparing the jackets and have exposed partial tusks, the cranium, a scapula, and a few vertebrate of the individual. More fossil preparation is necessary to assess the condition of the skeletal elements present, as well as ensure the long-term conservation of these specimens. Procedures used for this process include removing sediment using hand and pneumatic tools, as well as Paraloid consolidents. Sediment was also collected within the field jacket and screen-washed for microfossils, which were later used to identify the paleoenvironment as a perennial marsh facies. The mammoth bones are in varying states of preservation, with many bones being fragile and fragmented. Moving forward with this research, we are in the process of screen-washing sediment from the second field jacket. We also aim to obtain a more accurate radio-carbon date from the bones, as well as conduct a taphonomic analysis of the Fairbanks Spring Mammoth, and understand what environment the mammal may have lived and died in.