A rare mammoth tusk was unearthed on the O2 Ranch in West Texas. The find was reported in a statement released by Sul Ross State University.
Columbian mammoths (Mammuthus columbi), to which the tusk is attributed, once roamed the grasslands of what are now North and Central Texas until around 11,700 years ago. They coexisted with humans until their extinction at the end of the last ice age. Researchers have proposed several potential causes for their extinction, including climate change, hunting by humans, and disease. Columbian mammoths are considered distant southern cousins of the more widely known woolly mammoths (Mammuthus primigenius).
Last December, a hunter prowling for deer on the expansive O2 Ranch—which spans Brewster and Presidio counties near Big Bend National Park—noticed an unusual object protruding from a dried creek bed. The hunter took photographs of the fossil and presented them to the ranch manager, Will Juett.
Initially skeptical, Juett thought the object might be an old stump. "He told me he found something even more rare than a trophy buck," said Juett, the O2 ranch manager. Despite his doubts, he couldn't help but imagine if the hunter was correct. "Seeing that mammoth tusk just brings the ancient world to life. Now, I can't help but imagine that huge animal wandering around the hills on the O Ranch," he said.
Juett contacted Dr. Bryon Schroeder, the Director of the Center for Big Bend Studies at Sul Ross State University. Along with archaeologist Erika Blecha, a team was assembled to investigate the find. By early January, the researchers—including graduate student Haley Bjorklund and anthropology professors Justin Garnett and Devin Pettigrew—arrived at the ranch to examine the object firsthand, as detailed by Phys.org.
Upon inspection, the team confirmed that the object was indeed a mammoth tusk. "We realized pretty quickly there was no more to the skeleton, just an isolated tusk that had been separated from the rest of the remains," said Schroeder, according to Live Science. He noted that such a find is "very rare" in West Texas.
The tusk's discovery marks only the second Trans-Pecos mammoth artifact ever found, with the previous tusk discovered in the region dating back to the 1960s. "The last time a tusk was found in Texas was in Fort Stockton in the 1960s," Schroeder added.
Over two days, the team meticulously excavated the tusk. They carefully covered it in a plaster jacket using strips of plaster-covered burlap to protect it during extraction. A frame was then constructed to transport the fossil safely to Sul Ross State University for further study.
The researchers plan to carbon date the tusk to determine its age. "Carbon dating has become a much more exact science now," Schroeder explained, according to Phys.org. "There was a big range of error back then. Now we can get it down to a narrower range within 500 years." The results are expected to be available in the next few months.
"It paid off big time," remarked Juett about the researchers' visit, as reported by Live Science. "When they confirmed what they had uncovered, I couldn't believe it."
The article was written with the assistance of a news analysis system.