Help at Mammoth Dig Site
Kayla Snider, 17, a senior at Cle Elum-Roslyn High School, uses compressed air to clean soil off the scapula of a Columbia mammoth fossil in the Wenas Valley under the guidance of Central Washington University graduate student Jake Shapely on Friday. SELAH -- Not often do you, the public, get the chance to help the experts dig up a really old elephant skeleton.
But that's exactly the opportunity the good people at Central Washington University are offering. Starting this week, they hope to persuade some volunteers to help out this summer at the mammoth dig site in the Wenas Valley.
"Really, we'll take as many as we can get," says Jake Shapley, a CWU grad student who is writing his master's thesis on the dig.
Mammoths are extinct ancestors of modern-day elephants that once roamed North America. Until the last Ice Age about 10,000 years ago, they were a common sight in these parts, along with other so-called megafauna, such as the giant sloth, Western camels and saber-toothed tigers.
Then they died off, probably from climate change -- or maybe from overhunting by ancient humans.
Two years ago, a construction crew found the left humerus, or leg bone, of a mammoth sticking out of the dirt alongside a freshly cut driveway on a ranch off South Wenas Road. It was the first mammoth find in the area since a single tusk was found in the Moxee area in 2001.
ANDY SAWYER/Yakima Herald-Republic
CWU students, from left, Sarah Huntington, Minori Muramoto and Stephanie Karpach, foreground, and professor Pat Lubinski excavate squares Friday at the dig in the Wenas Valley.
Since that initial discovery, a CWU team led by anthropology
professor Patrick Lubinski has uncovered a right humerus at the site as well as other mammoth bones, including ribs, vertebrae and a scapula, or shoulder blade.
It all adds up to less than 10 percent of a complete skeleton, assuming it's all from a single mammoth. Lubinski and his colleagues hope the rest of it is still there, locked tight in the dirt. Based on carbon dating, the bones are believed to date back 16,000 years.
That's where volunteers come in. Although Lubinski has enough students to do most of the expert work, he has only five or six weeks to dig this summer and needs help managing the site.
Since about 900 people visited the site in just over a month last summer, volunteers should stay busy leading tours and staffing an exhibit tent on-site. If and when things are slow, they can also help sift dirt and perform other helpful chores.
Experience and expertise are not necessary. The only prerequisites are a good attitude, a willingness to help and a tolerance for very warm weather.
"We think of ourselves as public servants, and it's our belief that it's important to share what's happening out here with the public," Shapley says. "We just need some help so the experts can concentrate" on the digging.
The dig took on added urgency with the discovery last summer not only of ancient bison bones but also a single chipping tool fashioned by ancient humans. The tool was encased in sediment slightly above the mammoth and bison bones.
It remains to be seen whether Lubinski's team has stumbled across proof that humans and the animals were there at the same time.
Such evidence would be huge. Currently, most scientists date the earliest evidence of human activity in the region to no more than 12,000 years ago.
Given that dinosaur bones have never been found in Washington, which was under water millions of years ago, mammoth bones are as good as it gets around these parts.
Shapley said he needs volunteers not only to help the dig team but also to explain to visitors -- especially kids -- why bones and dirt matter.
"With all the criticism that our country isn't turning out enough homegrown scientists, it just seems like an awesome opportunity to hook kids into science," he said.
* Chris Bristol can be reached at 577-7748 or cbristol@yakimaherald.com.
From the YakimaHerald.com Online News.
Published on Sunday, July 8, 2007
Volunteers can help at mammoth dig site in Wenas Valley
By CHRIS BRISTOL
YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC
ANDY SAWYER/Yakima Herald-Republic
But that's exactly the opportunity the good people at Central Washington University are offering. Starting this week, they hope to persuade some volunteers to help out this summer at the mammoth dig site in the Wenas Valley.
"Really, we'll take as many as we can get," says Jake Shapley, a CWU grad student who is writing his master's thesis on the dig.
Mammoths are extinct ancestors of modern-day elephants that once roamed North America. Until the last Ice Age about 10,000 years ago, they were a common sight in these parts, along with other so-called megafauna, such as the giant sloth, Western camels and saber-toothed tigers.
Then they died off, probably from climate change -- or maybe from overhunting by ancient humans.
Two years ago, a construction crew found the left humerus, or leg bone, of a mammoth sticking out of the dirt alongside a freshly cut driveway on a ranch off South Wenas Road. It was the first mammoth find in the area since a single tusk was found in the Moxee area in 2001.
ANDY SAWYER/Yakima Herald-Republic
CWU students, from left, Sarah Huntington, Minori Muramoto and Stephanie Karpach, foreground, and professor Pat Lubinski excavate squares Friday at the dig in the Wenas Valley.
Since that initial discovery, a CWU team led by anthropology
professor Patrick Lubinski has uncovered a right humerus at the site as well as other mammoth bones, including ribs, vertebrae and a scapula, or shoulder blade.
It all adds up to less than 10 percent of a complete skeleton, assuming it's all from a single mammoth. Lubinski and his colleagues hope the rest of it is still there, locked tight in the dirt. Based on carbon dating, the bones are believed to date back 16,000 years.
That's where volunteers come in. Although Lubinski has enough students to do most of the expert work, he has only five or six weeks to dig this summer and needs help managing the site.
Since about 900 people visited the site in just over a month last summer, volunteers should stay busy leading tours and staffing an exhibit tent on-site. If and when things are slow, they can also help sift dirt and perform other helpful chores.
Experience and expertise are not necessary. The only prerequisites are a good attitude, a willingness to help and a tolerance for very warm weather.
"We think of ourselves as public servants, and it's our belief that it's important to share what's happening out here with the public," Shapley says. "We just need some help so the experts can concentrate" on the digging.
The dig took on added urgency with the discovery last summer not only of ancient bison bones but also a single chipping tool fashioned by ancient humans. The tool was encased in sediment slightly above the mammoth and bison bones.
It remains to be seen whether Lubinski's team has stumbled across proof that humans and the animals were there at the same time.
Such evidence would be huge. Currently, most scientists date the earliest evidence of human activity in the region to no more than 12,000 years ago.
Given that dinosaur bones have never been found in Washington, which was under water millions of years ago, mammoth bones are as good as it gets around these parts.
Shapley said he needs volunteers not only to help the dig team but also to explain to visitors -- especially kids -- why bones and dirt matter.
"With all the criticism that our country isn't turning out enough homegrown scientists, it just seems like an awesome opportunity to hook kids into science," he said.
* Chris Bristol can be reached at 577-7748 or cbristol@yakimaherald.com.
From the YakimaHerald.com Online News.
Published on Sunday, July 8, 2007
Volunteers can help at mammoth dig site in Wenas Valley
By CHRIS BRISTOL
YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC
ANDY SAWYER/Yakima Herald-Republic