Pleistocene Treasures, at a Breakneck Pace

[groovedaddy]

SNOWMASS, Colo. — Two different time scales collided in this place.

More than 130,000 years ago in the chilled depths of the Illinoian ice age, an errant glacier left a hole atop a 9,000-foot-high ridge near what would become the town of Aspen in the central Colorado Rockies. The depression filled with snowmelt, and for tens of thousands of years, the little lake attracted the giants of the Pleistocene — mammoths, mastodons, ground sloths half again the size of grizzly bears, supersize bison, camels and horses — that came to drink, and in many cases to die, in the high alpine mud.

The second time scale was more like a runner’s sprint. Scientists had only 70 days — a number framed by mountain winter weather and lawyerly fine print — to search the old lake bed sediments for remnants of these ancient animals.

That was from Oct. 14, when workers on a reservoir dam turned over the first fossil bones (of a young female mammoth, promptly nicknamed Snowy) to last weekend, when work on the reservoir resumed. A tight contract schedule dictates that the reservoir, which will supply the condos and ski lodges of Snowmass, must be completed by late this year. The result was a frantic race to find and catalog everything possible before the site was entombed once more by water.

The breakneck pace of the fossil dig was matched only by what scientists said was the extraordinary richness of the site, one of the best windows into the thundering megafauna of its time. “The speed of this thing is so unlike normal science — from discovery to completion of one of the biggest digs ever in less than nine months,” said Kirk R. Johnson, the chief curator of the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, who oversaw the project. (He is no relation to this reporter.)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/05/science/05dig.html?pagewanted=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha210

[InvisibleTouch]

1. Hope they are able to excavate most of it!

That's really a treasure trove into the past, and an opportunity that shouldn't go ignored. Sad that they are on such a tight time limit.

There's a wonderful Eocene fossil site in Germany (Messel) that was years ago threatened by being turned into a landfill. The scientific community and also the nearby residents came together to block the landfill and keep it open as an excavation site and landmark of local pride. Some of the most amazing fossils of the era have come out of there.

Perhaps this Pleistocene site could be saved by a similar effort.

[Raschel]

2. Disgusting that government couldn't intervene to allow more time. Gotta have that water ready for

the condos and resorts...

[bluedigger]

3. The government did intervene.

If the project hadn't already been in progress, nothing would have been found in the first place. :shrug:

You could argue that that would be better, of course, but most paleontologists would probably rather have the materials available to study. A coworker worked on this last fall, but I haven't had a chance to ask him about it - I was very jealous when I heard he was sent to Colorado, though. :)

[Hawkowl]

4. It's being made into a NOVA special

Can't wait to watch it next year!