Researchers can’t stop finding mammoth remains at Waco’s Mammoth National Monument, even when they’re not trying. This month, they found a mammoth tooth by accident.
The new Columbian mammoth molar and bone fragments were found by accident as site staff and Baylor University graduate researchers studied layers of soil outside the existing dig shelter this month. The geological work was performed in the same shallow ravine where two Waco teens discovered the site’s original mammoth femur in 1978.
Nearly 50 years later, Baylor University graduate student Briar Eslinger assisted with the molar find. Eslinger’s work will feature in her master’s thesis, co-advised by National Park Service paleontologist Lindsey Yann and Baylor geoscience professor Dan Peppe.
The fresh discovery promises to enrich what is already one of Texas’ premier Ice Age archeological sites.
“This exciting find indicates there are more fossils to discover in addition to preserving and researching the existing 34 mammoths,” the NPS wrote in a Facebook post this month.
But the original intent of the soil study is still important, too. Researchers are attempting to situate mammoth remains at three on-site dig locations in geologic time and figure out how the remains relate to each other. Previous discoveries at the Waco monument include the country’s only exhumed mammoth nursery herd.
Visitors to the monument can see the tooth during scheduled tours as researchers begin to assess what the tooth and bones reveal about the mammoth’s life. The tooth appeared to belong to a juvenile mammoth, said a monument spokesperson in response to an email from the Bridge. The bone fragments have been harder to interpret.
Experts working at the monument have been rewarded with new insights over the decades. Previously, a flash flood was the presumed cause of death for the nursery herd. Further examination of the remains pointed to a more likely culprit: Drought and environmental stress.
The Columbian mammoths of prehistoric Texas could reach 14 feet in height and weigh as much as 10 tons, slightly less than a full-size school bus. Unlike their northern woolly counterparts, Columbian mammoths were largely hairless, reflecting the warm grasslands they inhabited.
