A legendary snowmastodon fossil, creating a worldwide frenzy among the scientific community, is revealing the life and climate of an ancient Earth, according to a new study.
Excavated four years ago at a construction site in Colorado, a juvenile Columbian mammoth was found dating back to the last Ice Age. Between 140,000 and 50,000 years ago, the Snowmastodon site used to hold an ancient lake filled with sediment, preserving a series of Ice Age fossil ecosystems inside, including the mammoth.
According to BBC Nature, Columbian mammoths (Mammuthus columbi) ranged through the southern half of North America and south into Mexico before becoming extinct approximately 12,500 years ago. They had grayish-colored skin, tufts of hair on top of their head, and spiraled tusks measuring 4.9 meters in length, making them world record holders amongst the elephant family.
"Nothing beats pulling fossils out of the ground," project scientist Dr. Jeff Pigati of the US Geological Survey said in a statement, "but the site also lets us see what the Colorado Rockies were like during a period of time that we simply couldn't reach before the discovery."
This site is the first to display evidence of ecosystems at these high elevations during the last interglacial period between about 130,000 and 110,000 years ago. Along with the Columbian mammoth, at least 35 American mastodons, from calves to full-grown adults, as well as more than 5,000 large bones and 22,000 small bones from about 50 different species were found.
This treasure trove of fossils is useful to researchers trying to understand how plants, animals and insects adapted to Earth's changing climate so long ago, possibly revealing how today's ecosystems will cope in a warming world. It turns out their responses varied dramatically.
"In other words, turn the climate dial a little and the ecosystems change considerably," said paleontologist Dr. Ian Miller, Snowmastodon Project co-leader.
For example, the Colorado Rockies at times were quite warm compared to the rest of North America, suggesting that alpine ecosystems react differently than low-elevation areas.
"These new results have huge implications for predicting present-day climate change in Colorado and beyond," Miller added.
The findings were published in the journal Quaternary Research.
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