 EPOD - a service of USRA

The Earth Science Picture of the Day (EPOD) highlights the diverse processes
and phenomena which shape our planet and our lives. EPOD will collect and
archive photos, imagery, graphics, and artwork with short explanatory
captions and links exemplifying features within the Earth system. The
community is invited to contribute digital imagery, short captions and
relevant links.


 The Huntington Mammoth

   January 27, 2021

    Mammoth08c_2nov17

   Photographer:  Ray Boren
   Summary Author:  Ray Boren

   Likely among the last of its nearly  extinct species, somehow the
    elephantine creature seen reconstructed above had found refuge at
   an unusually high elevation, for a primarily  plains-oriented
   grassland animal — about 9,600 feet (2,926 m) on central Utah’s
    Wasatch Plateau. And there, in a time of climate change at the end
   of Earth’s  Pleistocene  ice age — a devastating juncture for
    North America’s megafauna — the  Huntington Mammoth, a grizzled
   bull perhaps 60 to 65 years old, died in a bog. Contributing to its
   death were old age, deforming arthritis and malnutrition, researchers
   say. The cold muck helped refrigerate and preserve the remains. About
   10,500 years later (as determined by  radiocarbon dating), in the
   summer of 1988, a bulldozer operator and crew working at the site of
   the  Huntington Dam uncovered a massive humerus (a leg bone) and
   part of a tusk. More discoveries were to come.
   Today this  Columbian mammoth ( Mammuthus columbi), a relative of
   modern elephants and a contemporary of the  mastodon, is considered
   a morphological exemplar of its vanished species. During subsequent
   excavation and recovery, a remarkable 95 percent of its skeleton,
   including the skull and right down to little toe bones, was retrieved.
   Also found were cells preserving its  DNA and examples of what the
   creature last ate, including grasses, sedges and twigs. The fragile
   bones are preserved and monitored in climate-controlled storage at the
    Utah State University Eastern Prehistoric Museum (originally part
   of the College of Eastern Utah) in Price.
    IMAGE22 Mounted life-size cast replicas of the well-preserved
   Huntington Mammoth’s skeleton, featuring the species’ upwardly
    curved tusks, awe visitors in Price and at other museums near and
   far, as illustrated in the first photograph here, taken on Nov. 2,
   2017, inside the  Fairview Museum of History and Art. The museum is
   in Utah’s Sanpete Valley, below the discovery location. The actual
   excavation site is just beyond and to the left of the trees shown in
   the inset photo, taken on July 19, 2014, below the Huntington Dam and
   its reservoir. Illustrated informational displays there describe the
   mammoth’s life, death, rediscovery and significance.
   Photo Details: Top - Camera: NIKON D3200; Exposure Time: 0.013s (1/80);
   Aperture: ƒ/9.0; ISO equivalent: 400; Focal Length (35mm): 28. Inset -
   same except: Exposure Time: 0.0020s (1/500); Aperture: ƒ/11.0; ISO
   equivalent: 400; Focal Length (35mm): 27
     * Mammoth Discovery Site, Utah:  39.58201, -111.24731

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History Links

     *  Paleoclimatology Data
     *  USGS: Age of the Earth
     *  What is Geologic Time?
     *  GSA Geologic Time Scale
     *  Earth Facts
     *  Earth History Courses

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   Space Research Association.

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