Principia's Mammoth Dig - Progress

The Mammoth News

Volume 12

Summer 2006

Lab Work

Summer work was confined to the lab. Jeff Saunders graciously helped me build a plaster storage jacket for the right scapula that has been on exhibit for a year.

During Summer Session I had two one-week classes that worked on several projects. They helped turn the scapula over and remove the field jacket from the other side. We are now ready to remove the PT (Paleontologic Tissue = toilet paper) and clean the surface that was exposed in the field – a project for the fall class.

Others worked on removing half of the field jacket and then matrix from four small bones – two knee caps (patellae), an unidentified bone, and a section of a rib. More work remains on these bones for my fall class.

The third project area was continuing to clean matrix from the left upper arm bone (humerus). This is a tedious task, but the results are worth it.

Outreach

 VISITORS
This summer we had about 270 visitors attend formal tours of the lab and garage where the skull block is, and many other visitors on campus who dropped by to view the lab on their own. These included some of the 800 Principia alumni on campus for their reunion, those attending the Summer Session, college students attending the archeology summer field program of the Center for American Archeology in Kampsville, and a few local visitors.

MANUSCRIPT
Janis Treworgy and co-authors Jeff Saunders (Illinois State Museum) and David Grimley (Illinois State Geological Survey) revised and resubmitted a manuscript on the Principia mammoth; the manuscript has been accepted for publication in the Quaternary International peer-reviewed journal.

The Fighting Mammoths

Those of you who have been to the University of Nebraska State Museum in Lincoln and seen the archived collections of mammoth bones with me on a class field trip may remember the “fighting mammoths” who died a tragic death with their tusks permanently locked together. These locked tusks and attached skulls, together with bones of the rest of the two male mammoths are now on display in the Trailside Museum in Ft. Robinson, western Nebraska, near where they were discovered in 1962. Not only is this an unusual death, but it is even more unlikely to have found such a unique pair of specimens. Until earlier this month, these tusks had been stored in their plaster field jackets on pallets in the collections room in Lincoln waiting for funding to prepare an exhibit for this small museum. The URL below will take you to an article in a local newspaper about the opening of this amazing exhibit. http://www.starherald.com/site/news.cfm

This is an update of our progress on the Mammoth Project at Principia College. I send this out at the end of each term of progress (2-3 times a year). If you would rather not be on the list to receive The Mammoth News, please email me and I will be happy to remove your name, and I won't be offended. If you know of others who would like to be added, please send me their email address. Thanks. Janis Treworgy

NEW PHOTOS ON THE WEB! – www.prin.edu/mammoth click on Progress, then Summer 2006. Hint: Once you click on a date and get a PowerPoint presentation of photos, you can click on the movie camera icon in the lower right corner to have the photos fill your screen; you can't see the captions at the same time though. To advance the photos, just left click with your mouse (anywhere); to go back to the captions, hit the Escape button on your keyboard.