Construction Crews Discover Mammoth Bones Beneath an Oregon Football Stadium
Construction Crews Discover Mammoth Bones Beneath an Oregon Football Stadium
10,000-year-old bones were hiding just ten feet beneath the endzone
OSU archaeologist Loren Davis alongside the bones uncovered underneath the end zone. (Theresa Hogue/Oregon State University)
By Danny Lewis
smithsonian.com
January 27, 2016
Construction crews digging underneath a Oregon State University football field this week discovered a trove of ancient bones beneath the end zone—including a giant femur bone that likely belonged to a wooly mammoth
Workers were excavating the site for a future locker room as part of a plan to expand the Reser Stadium in Corvallis, Oregon. The cache of bones waited just 10 feet below the surface and when a construction worker uncovered the massive femur, all work ceased and the crew immediately notified OSU officials. In the days since, archaeologists discovered bones that belonged to ancient bison and camels alongside the mammoth remains, Joseph Rose reports for The Oregonian.
“There are quite a few bones, and dozens of pieces,” Loren Davis, an associate professor of anthropology at OSU who was called to the site after the initial discovery was made, says in a statement. "Some of the bones are not in very good shape, but some are actually quite well preserved."
The bones are believed to be about 10,000 years old, though more testing needs to be done before experts can be certain. While OSU officials had no idea what was lying underneath the football stadium, it’s not uncommon for people to come across ancient animal remains throughout the Willamette Valley, which was once a popular trail for wooly mammoth herds, Rose writes.
More:
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/construction-crews-discover-mammoth-bones-beneath-oregon-football-stadium-180957958/#zCybku4T9i7a6gSS.99
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Ancient mammoth bones discovered under Oregon State’s stadium
BY Cassandra Profita, EarthFix January 28, 2016 at 3:08 PM EST
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Archaeologists removed ancient bones discovered by construction workers at Oregon State University’s Reser Stadium Monday.
Photo courtesy of Loren Davis/Oregon State University
An expansion project at Oregon State University’s Reser Stadium has uncovered ancient mammoth bones under the football field’s end zone.
Construction crews digging in the north end zone Monday found a 4-foot-long femur bone that experts have confirmed came from a mammoth, a prehistoric species that went extinct at least 10,000 years ago.
Further exploration with the help of archaeologists revealed thousands of bone fragments from several extinct mammals including bison and some kind of camel or horse.
The bones were discovered about 10 feet underground in an area that may once have been a bog or marsh, according to Loren Davis, associate professor of anthropology at OSU.
More:
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/ancient-mammoth-bones-discovered-under-oregon-states-stadium/
