Texas road construction unearths ‘colossal' prehistoric remains of ‘big ol' animals'
The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) announced the discovery in a recent press release.
Advertisement
In a statement, officials said the excavation took place in Lubbock during the environmental review for Loop 88, a proposed state highway.
During the archaeological survey, diggers uncovered ancient bones dating back to prehistoric times.
The remains belonged to megafauna, which are large mammals.
Chris Ringstaff, a project planner with TxDOT's environmental affairs division, said that megafauna bones '[are] not unusual in the region.'
Advertisement
Ringstaff also noted that at least one giant ground sloth was identified, thanks to its distinctive tooth.
'Whether all the bones are giant ground sloth or there are different animals such as mammoth or mastodon, we're not sure,' he said.
3 Workers conduct a dig in the excavation site on the side of Loop 88 in Lubbock, Texas.
Texas Department of Transportation
'Paleontologists will give us positive identification.'
Advertisement
'We're here to get the road built, but who doesn't love digging up big ol' animals?' Ringstaff added.
TxDOT noted that the Lone Star State is home to many dried-out lakes called playas, which date back to the Ice Age.
'In prehistoric times, animals and humans used playas as water sources and these sites can sometimes contain evidence of human activity,' the press release noted.
3 Officials begin to extract the remains of the megafauna in the site.
Texas Department of Transportation
Advertisement
Archaeologists are still searching for small artifacts. They're also using dating techniques to determine the age of the remains.
If any proof of human settlement is found, the project will be temporarily halted.
'Should the site reveal human activity with megafauna from the Ice Age, it would be [the] first of its kind for a TxDOT project,' the statement said.
Several prehistoric bones are found in the US every year.
3 The fossil skeleton of the giant ground sloth, Megatherium.
Florilegius/Universal Images Gro
Last summer, archaeologists in Iowa unearthed a 13,000-year-old mastodon skull.
Later in 2024, a New York homeowner found a complete mastodon jaw in his Scotchtown backyard.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Miami Herald
3 days ago
- Miami Herald
‘Perfectly preserved' Ice Age skull extracted from mine in the Canadian Klondike
At a placer mine in Canada's Klondike region, paleontologists made an unexpected and 'incredible' find. Initially, only half an of an animal skull, including the jaw, was visibly sticking out of the ground at the Hester Creek mine, according to a June 27 Facebook post from the Yukon Beringia Interpretive Centre. The team from Yukon Paleontology returned the next day with tools to safely thaw out the find, still solidly frozen in the earth. Eager to help, the miners aimed their water hoses at the ground directly above the skull, 'which significantly sped up the excavation process,' experts said. With the miners' assistance, the team removed a complete and 'perfectly preserved' Ice Age horse skull, according to the post. 'The presence of canines tells us this horse was likely male, and because they were only partially erupted, we know he was likely a teenager when he died,' officials said. The depth at which the skull was found suggests the horse lived about 30,000 years ago, experts said in a Facebook comment. 'Many of the fossils coming out of this area are from the last Ice Age,' experts said. Paleontologists have identified more than 50 different species of horses that roamed across North America, Europe and Eurasia during the Ice Age. In the Yukon, the most common was Equus lambei, or the Yukon horse — a relatively small species that stood just under 4 feet tall at the shoulders, according to experts. Another unique species found in the region toward the end of the Ice Age was the North American stilt-legged horse — characterized by long, thin leg bones and an overall lighter build, experts said. Experts have not yet identified the species of the Hester Creek fossil. The mine is in Canada's Yukon territory.
CBS News
5 days ago
- CBS News
More and more mastodon bones found in Orange County, N.Y.
The more they dig in Orange County, the more mastodon remains they find. The Ice Age mammals went extinct 11,000 years ago. The giants may have weighed up to six tons. They've been a longtime source of fascination in Orange County. "George Washington left an encampment in Newburgh and came to Middletown to see a tooth that a farmer had encountered," Dr. Cory Harris of SUNY Orange said. Harris recently led students on a weeks-long excavation in a back yard in Wallkill after the homeowner found mastodon teeth. The painstaking dig recovered more pieces. "We found quite a few vertebrae. We found some ribs," Harris said. The so-called "atlas bones" are perhaps 13,000 years old. "Where we found it, based on the sediments, the sediments indicated that the remains were in a former lake formed by a retreating glacier," geologist Anthony Soricelli said. A nearly complete mastodon skeleton dating to 8,000 B.C. was found in Orange County in 1972. It's named Sugar. Continued exploration for remains of these Ice Age mammals helps answer questions about our natural history and our ever-changing environment. "We're providing opportunities to our students at SUNY Orange. We're recovering real and important natural history for New York, and for Orange County," Harris said. Their finds will be further studied at the New York State Museum in Albany.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Yahoo
See what to do for free at Lubbock Lake Landmark Archeology in Action
Lubbock Lake Landmark will host a range of free activities and tours focused on the region's pre-historic origins from 9 a.m. to noon Thursday through Saturday. Tours start at 9 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. daily as part of the Lubbock Lake Landmark Archeology in Action events, according to a news release. Lubbock's first citizens arrived about 12,000 years ago. They may have been passing through the area, but they left clues about their culture that researchers are discovering today. The public can tour the archaeological excavations at the Lubbock Lake Landmark and learn more about the humans and animals of the past during the three-day Archaeology in Action activities. Located in a bend of Yellowhouse Draw in northwest Lubbock, the Landmark is an internationally known archaeological site and nature preserve. While there may be sites in North America that reveal human habitation older than 12,000 years, the Landmark is unique in that its record of humans is continuous. Animals have passed through the area as far back as three million years ago. The draw for humans and animals is that a source of water was always available. More: Lubbock Lake Landmark offers archaeological digs, look into where city started The Lubbock Lake Landmark regional research program is also unusual in that its work focuses on the entire Quaternary Period, the time from before the last Ice Age, about 2.6 million years ago, until the present. Archaeological sites typically do not focus on such a broad time period. Much of this time is before people entered North America, yet the Landmark's scope encompasses the natural world as well as the cultural. Large animals such as mammoths, giant camels standing seven feet at the shoulder, and armadillos three feet tall, and six feet long went extinct at the end of the Ice Age and different animals became dominant. The ancient bison is one of the very few animals that survived the changing environment and evolved into the smaller animal we know today. While Lubbock Lake's archaeological importance was first discovered in 1936, excavation work was infrequent. In 1972, Eileen Johnson arrived at Texas Tech University and conducted her first field excavations. She has overseen research at the Landmark and other regional sites for 53 years. Archaeology in Action features a Native storyteller, Eldrena Douma; flintknapping; tours and discussions with researchers at the excavation site and the Quaternary Research Laboratory; and children's excavation site. For more information about Archaeology in Action, go to call them (806) 742-1116 or find them on Facebook and Instagram. This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: See what to do for free at Lubbock Lake Landmark Archeology in Action
